Streaming Wars • April 2023

Two Very Different Shows Make Netflix’s April Great for Very Different Reasons

Plus, Peacock takes the #5 spot in a best-ever performance for the NBC-Universal streamer.

The Last of Us and Wednesday maintained their stubborn hold on first and second place on the Watchworthy leaderboards for a third straight month. But unlike in March, these shows were joined by some hot new titles in April, both belonging to Netflix. The Night Agent, a fast-paced conspiracy thriller, made a very promising debut at #4 last month, while critics’ pick Beef took the #7 spot. Though these are the only two premieres to crack the Top 20 in April, their strong performance suggests there’s plenty of appetite among Watchworthy users for new content, despite the enduring popularity of a few blockbuster shows.

Meanwhile, the fact that Disney+ hasn’t released a new show from the Marvel Cinematic Universe since last August is starting to affect its standing on the leaderboards, as the streamer went without a series in the Top 10 for the first time in Streaming Wars history. Plus, the state of the competition hinges on a host of new releases slated for May, with Peacock, Amazon, HBO, and Netflix all hoping to increase their share of Engagement with buzzworthy new shows.

2023 Is Still Harsh Terrain for New Releases…Except at Netflix

April’s only two debuts may both belong to Netflix, but they are totally different shows. One, Beef, is a genre-defying showcase of both inventive writing on the part of creator Lee Sung Jin, and stellar acting from stars Ali Wong and Steven Yeun. The other, The Night Agent, is a straightforwardly explosive action series that draws in viewers with exciting plot twists and heart-pounding action. The fact that both had strong debuts last month indicates that, despite the progress made by smaller streamers in recent months, Netflix very much remains the force to contend with in the Streaming Wars.

Why did The Night Agent beat out Beef? Our data says that although more people added Beef to their Watchlists, The Night Agent got more “Likes” and “Favorites.” This suggests lots of people are planning to get around to watching Beef, but more are actually tuning into The Night Agent. The good news is that both shows have a similarly low “Dislike” count, which means the vast majority of those who are checking out Beef aren’t being disappointed.

Disney+ Disappears from Top 10 Series, Top 5 Platforms

Disney+ had zero shows in the Top 10 in April for the first time ever. In fact, Disney’s series are so perennially popular that there’s only been one other month — August of 2022 — that a show of theirs wasn’t among the Top 5 most Watchworthy. Though Disney+ did have three shows on the leaderboards in April, it’s worth noting that the platform has consistently had as many as six at a time there in the past.

What’s behind this trend? Moon Knight, the most popular Disney+ title as of late, aged out of the leaderboards in April. While She-Hulk has shown impressive staying power, the only other MCU show still in contention, Ms. Marvel, hasn’t been in the Top 20 in three months. And with Obi-Wan Kenobi turning one year old in May, Andor could be the only other competitive series for Disney+ until Secret Invasion is released in late June. Though these losses will likely be reversed as Phase 5 shows trickle out, they point toward a period of stagnancy for a platform that had until this point been dominant.

For 5th Place Peacock, It’s a Make-Or-Break May

Thanks to Disney+’s decline in recent months, Peacock became the fifth largest shareholder of Engagement in April, the highest position yet for the streamer. Poker Face’s ability to maintain a strong standing well after the end of its season has certainly contributed to this feat, putting it ahead of Paramount+, whose big titles Tulsa King and 1923 have been inconsistent presences on the leaderboards. But will NBCUniversal’s streamer be able to keep up this streak?

That will likely depend not just on the longevity of Poker Face, but also on two new premieres: Mrs. Davis and Pete Davidson’s semi-autobiographical Bupkis. Mrs. Davis premiered April 20 and failed to crack the Top 50. The late date of its release makes that unsurprising, but Netflix’s The Diplomat premiered the same day and managed to make it to #40. Bupkis premieres May 5, and with a cast that includes not just Davidson, but also Edie Falco and Joe Pesci, there is good reason to believe it could help Peacock finally hit its Streaming Wars stride.

With Both its Big Two Hits Faltering, HBO Needs New Blood

HBO had a banner April thanks to two hit shows, Succession and Barry, both releasing their fourth and final seasons. But on the Watchworthy leaderboards, where new shows are what counts, the network is in a more precarious position. Though The Last of Us topped the list for the third straight month, at several points in April the show was overtaken by its closest competitor, Wednesday. And House of the Dragon, which put a damper on Last of Us’s debut by suddenly rising to the top of the leaderboards in January, dropped two spots after two months in the #3 spot. Since these are the only two HBO shows currently on the Watchworthy leaderboards, the network will need strong showings from Love and Death and White House Plumbers to keep itself above an increasingly strong Amazon.

Love and Death is a true crime series that tells the same true story as Candy, a Hulu series that performed well on the Watchworthy leaderboards when it was first released last year. True crime has performed well for HBO in the past — the only other series from the network in the Top 50 besides House of the Dragon and Last of Us is The Staircase. But it’s possible that audiences already got their fill of this story back in 2022, despite the best efforts of Love and Death stars Elizabeth Olsen and Jesse Plemons.

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.

Want to learn more about how we built a TV recommendation engine using Ranker Insights data? We tell the whole story in our Watchworthy white paper, which you can download here for free.

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