Who Won the Streaming Wars in January 2021?
We’re watching more television than ever, which has only given Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and the rest of them more reason to compete for our attention. But these platforms are less than open about how many people are watching their content — which begs the question, how do we get a sense of who’s winning the streaming wars? We answer that question by taking a look at the way people are using Watchworthy, our TV recommendation app.
In just 30 seconds, Watchworthy gets to know your specific taste in TV and gives every show a “Worthy Score” — the higher a show’s Worthy Score, the more likely it is that the user will enjoy that show. Over the month of January, we tracked each time a show received a Worthy Score of 80% or higher, then organized all those shows according to network. The resulting analysis allowed us to determine which network’s content is being recommended to the most users.
Metrics like views and streams tell us how popular a given show or service is, but they don’t give us a strong sense of how the television landscape is shifting: the same few hugely popular shows tend to dominate viewers’ time from month to month. By relying on the Watchworthy algorithm, which itself relies on the “Likes” and “Dislikes” of Ranker and Watchworthy users, Worthy Scores give us a sense of not just what’s popular, but what’s trending in TV today. The Watchworthy algorithm recommends new shows to viewers based on what they already love — it doesn’t recommend hugely popular shows like Game of Thrones or The Office all that much because typically, those are shows that our users have already seen. Using an aggregate of Worthy Scores can therefore tell us which shows are most rapidly growing their fanbase, and makes it easier to tie their success to larger, more universally popular series.
With that in mind, we’re taking a look at the networks and shows recommended most often by Watchworthy and interpreting the results as a reflection on the constantly changing habits of TV viewers everywhere. Here are the shows and streaming platforms that were most Watchworthy in January 2021.
Which Shows Were Most Watchworthy?
1. The Mandalorian — Disney+
2. The Umbrella Academy — Netflix
3. The Boys — Amazon Prime Video
4. Sex Education — Netflix
5. Euphoria — HBO Max
6. South Park — HBO Max
7. Rick and Morty — Hulu/HBO Max
8. Stranger Things — Netflix
9. Grey’s Anatomy — Netflix
10. Family Guy — Hulu
11. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina — Netflix
12. The Good Doctor — Hulu
13. The Good Place — Peacock/Netflix
14. The Witcher — Netflix
15. The Vampire Diaries — Netflix
16. Mindhunter — Netflix
17. Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist — Peacock/Hulu
18. Dead to Me — Netflix
19. The Expanse — Amazon Prime Video
20. Unsolved Mysteries — Netflix
Which Streaming Platforms Were Most Watchworthy?
Photo: Ranker
