Who Won the Streaming Wars in March 2021?

It’s one thing to know how many bodies are sitting in front of how many televisions to watch however many shows at any given time. But on top of every one of those bodies (or beside them if you’re lying down on the couch — no judgment) is a mind bursting with important ideas: ideas about the shows the person is watching, why they’re watching it, and how it’s similar to or different from the dozens of other shows they love. And Watchworthy is the place you can find cold hard data on all those opinions.

In just 30 seconds, our Watchworthy recommendation app gets to know 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. Over the month of March, 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 — in other words, it told us which of the major streaming platforms is currently winning the Streaming Wars.

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 also 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 Breaking Bad or The Office all that often because most of our users have already seen those shows. Using an aggregate of Worthy Scores can therefore tell us which shows are most rapidly growing their fanbases, and make it easier to tie the success of those shows 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 to track the constantly changing habits of TV viewers everywhere. Here are the shows and streaming platforms that were most Watchworthy in March 2021.

Which Shows Were Most Watchworthy?

Which Streaming Platforms Were Most Watchworthy?

The anomalous results we saw in February have given way to a familiar state of play: Netflix dominates while the others jockey for second place. The lead held by Netflix in March was so large that developments that might have otherwise shifted the playing field, like the appearance of WandaVision in our Top 20 most Watchworthy shows, were completely overshadowed. That said, the streaming landscape could be in for some major changes in the near future: original content from Paramount+ and Apple TV both registered this month, and while their respective shares of recommendations aren’t statistically significant yet, that could change very soon.

Netflix Is Back with a Vengeance: Back in February, we were considering the possibility that HBO Max could overtake Netflix by the beginning of April. But that’s not how the cookie crumbled in March: Netflix had its biggest lead to date on the Watchworthy leaderboards, grabbing a whopping 52% of strong recommendations to become the #1 most Watchworthy service for the fifth straight month. The lead is largely propped up by reliable winners like Stranger Things and Grey’s Anatomy, as well as a notable uptick in recommendations for The Walking Dead. The Queen’s Gambit also made a surprising comeback, returning to our Top 20 for the first time since its release in October of 2020.

HBO Max Holds onto Second Place: Though its share of strong recommendations dropped in March, HBO Max’s lead over its more established competitors remains comfortable. Euphoria’s continued success has a lot to do with that strength, protecting HBO from losing too much share even as Rick and Morty dropped suddenly from the Top 20.

Hulu’s Small Gains Push it to a Tie for Third: Hulu did manage to grow its share of strong recommendations by 2%, which pushed it up from fifth place in February to third place in March. But Hulu’s story remains pretty much the same month-to-month: it’s held up by popular, fairly old shows like Family Guy and Futurama. The plus side of owning content like this is that it appeals to a lot of viewers and will always be recommended to a decent amount of people. But that popularity is also a limitation: users who have already seen these shows will tell the algorithm so, which means they won’t see those shows recommended to them again. It’ll take some newer and less established content to push Hulu out of the doldrums.

Amazon Is Sitting Still: Amazon is dealing with a problem similar to the one faced by Hulu: as The Boys fades from the TV conversation, it’s relying on older, acquired properties like Teen Wolf to hold it up. With 11% of all strong recommendations in March, Amazon Prime Video avoided a loss this month and can technically still claim third place, but at the moment the service appears to be treading water.

Disney+ Waiting to Convert on Original Content: WandaVision entered the Most Watchworthy list at #6 this month while The Mandalorian maintained its considerable lead. So why did Disney+’s share of strong recommendations drop? More shows ended up getting strong recommendations in March than in February, mostly because February is three days shorter. But Disney+’s leading show The Mandalorian only ended up with a slightly smaller number of recommendations in February than usual — that meant it claimed a larger percentage of an unusually small total of recommendations. That changed in March, when overall recommendations increased again. Still, as WandaVision continues to grow its following, and with the release of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier this month, there are still plenty of reasons for Disney to be optimistic.

Peacock’s Drop Continues: Just two shows on Peacock got over 50 strong recommendations this month: The Office and Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. One is an old standby that most TV viewers are familiar with, and the other is a newer series struggling to grow its base. Neither Mr. Mayor nor Kenan has so far managed to get on the board. It will take a big change to keep Peacock in the fight, especially as Paramount+ emerges.

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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