Streaming Wars • December 2022
Wednesday Wins Big Time, Dominating Closest Rivals
Netflix’s bet on Addams’ Family IP pays off, while Disney+’s Star Wars series surge into Top 10.
After a promising debut at #6 in November, the comedy/mystery series Wednesday was a big-time winner last month. Lodging three times the Engagement of runner-up Moon Knight, Netflix’s ‘Addams Family’ spinoff may be haunting the top spot for months to come. Meanwhile, Star Wars series enjoyed a boost in December, with Andor, Book of Boba Fett, and Obi-Wan Kenobi all rising up to spots in the Top 10. As has been the case in years past, popular shows from throughout the year got a boost from nostalgic Watchworthy users in December, although newcomers like 1899 and Willow also managed to rank in the Top 20.
Photo: Wednesday, Netflix
December’s #1 Is Full of Woe — But for How Long?
Wednesday set streaming records for Netflix, so it’s no surprise that it put up such a strong performance its first full month on the Watchworthy leaderboards (the show premiered November 23). Netflix is no doubt happy that its competitive bidding for Tim Burton’s latest project proved to be a smart investment, but it isn’t clear how long Wednesday will sit atop the leaderboards. Loki was another incredibly popular spinoff series about a beloved character that sat at #1 of the Top 20 for nearly a year before it was unseated by Amazon’s The Summer I Turned Pretty in June. The usurping series had a very short reign by comparison, dropping from #1 to #14 in August.
So how long will Wednesday stay at the top? It’s hard to say, but the numbers are encouraging: while Wednesday only has a dozen or so more Likes and Favorites than Moon Knight, it wallops its closest competitor in terms of Watchlist adds, trailer views, and searches. This kind of across-the-board Engagement indicates that interest in the show is organic and strong, with users actively seeking not only to express their opinion about the show, but to learn more about it.
Photo: Moon Knight, Disney+
Disney+ Finishes 2022 Stronger Than Ever
The road has been somewhat bumpy for Disney+ in 2022. None of the streamer’s Marvel series this year quite matched the popularity of last year’s offerings like WandaVision or Loki, and its long-awaited Obi-Wan Kenobi series wasn’t nearly as talked about as the more low-key follow-up Andor. But in spite of Hawkeye’s disappearance, Disney+ had seven shows in the Top 20 in December, with most of them in the Top 10 spots. All three of the platform’s Star Wars shows in contention gained ground from November, with Andor regaining lost momentum and returning to the Top 10. A robust first performance from the debuting Willow rounded out Disney+’s banner month.
Photo: Criminal Minds: Evolution, Paramount+
Things Are Looking Up for Paramount+
In November, we noted that Tulsa King had failed to inspire any kind of response from Watchworthy users the month of its premiere. Luckily for Paramount, which has invested plenty in creator Taylor Sheridan’s success, the Sylvester Stallone-led series has proven to be a bit of a late bloomer, debuting at #16 in December. Spinoff series Criminal Minds: Evolution also made its mark last month, popping up at #19. If all these shows maintain momentum, and if 1923 is the sensation Paramount+ hopes it will be, the young streamer could carve out some serious real estate for itself on the leaderboards in 2023.
Photo: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Amazon
Rings of Power Is Fourth-Place at Amazon
It’s not surprising that a show that premiered in September would fall off the Top 20 by December — even if it’s a show as costly as Rings of Power reportedly was. But it’s a bit more disappointing to know that this blockbuster series isn’t among the Top 3 new shows even at Amazon. The lead show at the streamer is Reacher, a series that debuted all the way back in February, followed by newer sci-fi show The Peripheral and former champion The Summer I Turned Pretty. That all these titles remain competitive is great news for Amazon, which doesn’t always have a lot of pieces on the board when it comes to the Streaming Wars. Still, it’s a bit concerning that this massively anticipated series has faded from users’ memories so 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.
