Streaming Wars • October 2021
Squid Game Conquers And Hulu Falters In One Of Netflix’s Most Dominant Months Yet
Even though Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building came to an exciting conclusion in October, all the air was taken out of the room by Squid Game and other trending shows on Netflix. New series like Midnight Mass and Maid, as well as 2020 fare like The Haunting of Bly Manor and The Queen’s Gambit, pushed back Disney+’s trio of popular Marvel shows, as well as new threats like La Brea and I Know What You Did Last Summer.
Photo: Squid Game, Netflix
A Phenomenal Month For Netflix
Just as Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building hit its high point a month after its August release, Netflix’s September 2021 offering Squid Game peaked in October. The Korean crossover hit series ranked notably higher than its murder mystery competitor, which fell 11 spots to #16 in October. But Squid Game was far from alone in bolstering Netflix. The Queen’s Gambit fell just two spots to accommodate the new #1 show, barely skipping a beat a month after winning seven Emmys. What’s more, the success of Midnight Mass has rekindled interest in Mike Flanagan’s last Netflix original, The Haunting of Bly Manor. The Margaret Qualley-led Maid’s debut at #7 is just icing on the cake for the streaming service.
Photo: WandaVision, Disney+
Disney+’s Marvel Offerings Stick To The Top 6… For Now
Disney+’s three most popular Marvel series — Loki, WandaVision, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier — have all moved up and down once or twice in the last few months, but very rarely outside the confines of spots 1-6. That’s impressive staying power, especially for WandaVision, which debuted in January of this year. But nothing lasts forever, and without any new tremendously popular offerings from Disney+ in the near future, it’s hard to see how the company will keep its Big Three so close to the top.
Photo: Ghosts, Paramount+
Paramount+ Surprises With A Strong October
Paramount+ refuses to be counted out, repeatedly releasing sleeper hits that debut high on the Watchworthy leaderboard. Three shows in October’s Top 20 stream on the platform, more than what Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, or Peacock can claim (they tie with Disney+ in this department and trail HBO Max by one). The quirky new comedy Ghosts led the pack for Paramount+ in October at #8, followed by CSI: Vegas at #10 and The Equalizer at #14.
Photo: Midnight Mass, Netflix
Horror Haunts October’s Top 20
The Watchworthy leaderboards reflected the coming of Spooky Season, with Midnight Mass, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and I Know What You Did Last Summer (Amazon’s first original series to register in the Top 50 in months) performing exceptionally well. Even October’s top comedy, Ghosts, reflects the theme. Outside the Top 20, SyFy’s Day of the Dead debuted at #22, while Amazon’s Tell Me Your Secrets arrived in the #30 spot. It will be interesting to see if that trend really is contingent on the Halloween season, or if viewers’ interest in horror continues well into November.
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.
