According to Ampere’s Critical Rating – a proxy for content quality based on audience and critics’ reviews – HBO’s The Last of Us was the most acclaimed new title to premiere in H1 2023. The US cable network’s adaptation of Sony’s hit video game scored 83.0 out of 100, ranking it within the top 0.1% of all content ever released. Similarly exceptionally well-received was Sony Pictures Entertainment’s theatrically released Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse; with a score of 82.9, the animated sequel ranks as the second best new release of H1 2023.

The subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) market remains a common arena for the first-run distribution of high quality new content, with  60% of the 15 top-rated new titles being SVoD Originals. Netflix is one of the most represented SVoD platforms with three of the top 15, including comedy series Beef and animated show Skull Island. But this result is unsurprising given Netflix’s status as one of the world’s most prolific content commissioners.

What is striking is Apple TV+’s equal representation within the top-15 chart, with Silo, Shrinking and Platonic. This reflects Apple’s quality-over-quantity strategy and its higher success rate: Apple’s H1 2023 releases of new movies and TV shows numbered just 13% of Netflix’s.

In widening the pool of top titles to the 25 best-rated movies and TV shows, the source material of premium content between the two content types provides a stark contrast. Heavily represented among the TV shows that are an adaptation of some sort are book adaptations, including Silo, Daisy Jones and the Six and Lockwood & Co. The composition of adaptations within the top movies is simultaneously less focused on books and more evenly distributed, with comic adaptations – propelled by Marvel and DC properties – and movie adaptations – including the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid and Netflix’s Extraction 2 – jointly the most common adaptation types. This speaks to possible sources of new content for commissioners seeking to add more acclaimed and well-received titles to their pipelines.