Streaming Wars • May 2022
Hulu and HBO Max Close In on Netflix with New True Crime Hits
A month full of strong premieres benefitted almost every streamer — with one exception.
The trends that defined last month’s Streaming War outcome seem to be accelerating: Netflix’s strength in the Top 20 has never been less apparent, while main competitors Hulu and HBO Max appear to be gaining strength. Adaptations of true crime stories seemed to be a winning approach in May, with Candy, The Staircase, and Under the Banner of Heaven all debuting in the Top 20 after premiering either in early May or late April, while stock in superhero stories seems to finally be dropping. Meanwhile, Apple TV+ seems to have found its niche, with two reality-shifting drama series in the Top 20 during May, one of them having premiered at the end of April.
Photo: Heartstopper, Netflix
Netflix Has Never Looked Weaker
Normally, we don’t discuss the share of Engagement each platform gets each month because it’s so stable — Netflix has held a considerable lead over all its competitors every month we’ve been measuring their performance on Watchworthy. But that’s finally beginning to change.
Despite a surge of renewed interest in Squid Game and a strong debut from British coming-of-age show Heartstopper, overall, shows on Netflix got 19.7% of all Engagement, a little more than 4% higher than its closest competitor, Hulu. That may not seem exceptionally competitive, but consider the fact that in October 2021, Netflix’s share was over 30%, twice the share of the #2 streamer. In those seven months, Netflix has lost more than 10% of its share — with nine other competitors in the mix, that puts its dominance in greater danger than it’s ever been.
Photo: Under the Banner of Heaven, Hulu
Hulu and HBO Max Ride High on True Crime
Candy and Under the Banner of Heaven enjoyed strong debuts on the Watchworthy Top 20 in May, both Hulu original series based on real stories of true crime that took place in the mid-’80s in the southwestern United States. HBO, for its part, also had a winner in the star-studded The Staircase, a fictionalized retelling of the murder case made famous by a 2004 documentary. Though fictional, HBO’s We Own This City also had an impressive showing at #9. Even after Mare of Easttown’s time in the sun expired, HBO has found a way to keep capturing the greater TV-watching public’s interest with new and exciting original series.
Photo: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Disney+
With MCU Shows Slowing Down, Is Disney+ in Trouble?
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.
Photo: Hacks, HBO Max
Returning 2021 Hits Make For Strong Watchworthy Performances
A couple of popular new shows from 2021 are back for Season 2 less than a year after their initial premieres, which gives them the benefit of name recognition before they age out of the Watchworthy Top 20. Only Murders in the Building is set to return in late June, but a trailer released in May is likely behind the show’s impressive jump to #3 that month. Similarly, Hacks is already back with more episodes — though it was only able to compete for less than half of May (Season 1 debuted May 13, 2021), it made the most of that time, just making the Top 20.
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.
