Streaming Wars • April 2022

After Gutting Netflix News, Smaller Streamers Smell Blood

Though Netflix is still on top, former lightweights Apple, Peacock, and Paramount are slowly sapping its strength.

The television world was rocked by the revelation that Netflix, the longtime leader of the Streaming Wars, actually lost subscribers in the most recent business quarter, sending its market value tumbling. Though the news broke more than halfway through April, it’s already being reflected in our Watchworthy data. HBO Max, Netflix’s ascendent competitor, continues to grow its share of Engagement as Netflix’s share drops. But perhaps the more interesting story is the growth of Apple TV+, Peacock, and Paramount+, whose combined output amounted to seven of the Top 20 Most Watchworthy series in April, just two fewer than the combined output of Netflix, Hulu, and HBO Max. Meanwhile, Disney+’s new content continues to impress, with Moon Knight jumping an eye-popping 33 spots to reach #2. As the Top 20 grows more fluid, with new series quickly rising and pushing older shows out of contention, pressure on Netflix and other top performers to generate new, talked-about shows will continue to grow.

‘New and Trending’ Beats ‘Tried and True’

The Streaming Wars are still dominated by beloved titles like Loki, Only Murders in the Building, and Mare of Easttown. That’s because the popularity of these shows is leading users to similar, more recent fare, which tends to rise and fall from month to month. But these landmark series are slowly starting to disappear, which is why we’re seeing a little more fluidity than we’re used to: look at the Top 20 and you’ll notice a lot more green “up” arrows than red “down” ones. More than half of these 20 shows premiered in the last four months, including Watchworthy newcomer The Girl from Plainville. This trend favors new streamers like Apple TV+ and Paramount+, who are still building their content libraries rather than coasting off the success of previous series.

Broadcast TV Is Thriving In the Streaming Era

Three of these Top 20 shows were aired in prime-time slots on big broadcast networks ABC, NBC, and CBS during the month of April, in addition to being streamed on Hulu, Peacock, and Paramount+. Sitcoms Ghosts and Abbott Elementary, alongside crime thriller The Endgame, are straddling two sides of the current television landscape. That’s another worrying sign for Netflix, whose OTT-exclusive approach was thought by many to have completely supplanted traditional, linear TV providers.

Mare of Easttown Isn’t Long for this (Streaming) War

Because Mare of Easttown premiered in April 2021, its impressive run has come to a close, finishing in the Top 5. Its disappearance in May doesn’t bode well for HBO, whose promising crop of new series — including Winning Time, Tokyo Vice, Gilded Age, and Minx — have yet to crack the Top 20. Though Peacemaker is continuing to make promising gains, the streamer will have to catch a few more lucky breaks if it’s going to take full advantage of its main competitor’s misfortune.

Moon Knight and Obi-Wan Position Disney+ for a Great May

As we predicted last month, Moon Knight took off in the month following its release (though it still didn’t come close to the performance of the longtime #1 show Loki). With Hawkeye also rebounding, Disney+ may become dominant once more in May, thanks to the coming release of the much anticipated Obi-Wan Kenobi. The first to break out of the “New School” of streamers, (along with Apple TV+, Paramount+, and Peacock, it debuted in 2019 or later), Disney+ is another service that’s likely to benefit big time from Netflix’s recent losses. Then again, with a fourth season of Stranger Things set for release in May, there’s a chance Netflix recoups quickly.

Our Methodology

In 30 seconds, our Watchworthy recommendation app learns your taste in TV and gives every show a “Worthy Score” specifically for you: the higher a given show’s Worthy Score, the more likely it is you will enjoy that show. Each month we track user engagement across thousands of series for every major streaming service. All of these signals are combined into a single metric called Watchworthy Engagement. This enables Ranker to determine which service’s content has the highest engagement — in other words, the streaming platforms who are winning the Streaming Wars.

The Top 20 shows measures which new series (premiered two years ago or later) are garnering the most Engagement from our users month to month. The most Watchworthy platform measures Engagement across all TV shows, new and old, and aggregates them according to the platform they stream on.