Streaming Wars • September 2021
Netflix Capitalizes on Emmy Wins, While Loki Brings Disney+ Back to Earth
Netflix’s control once again steadied in September, thanks in large part to a resurgent The Queen’s Gambit. Meanwhile, Disney+’s surge came to a halt, with its biggest Marvel series, Loki, suffering the largest drop in Engagement of any show during the month. Hulu and HBO Max both thrived when it mattered most, relying on the success of their newest series to keep Disney+ from advancing too far in the standings.
Photo: Netflix
The Emmys Bring Big Wins for Netflix and HBO Max
An exceptional night at the Emmys pushed Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit back up to #1, while the platform’s new series Midnight Mass was so highly anticipated, it managed to rank in the Top 20 for September despite premiering at the very end of the month. HBO also saw some benefits from Emmy night, despite being beaten by Netflix there for the first time ever. The Watchworthy leaderboards reflect the success of female-led Mare of Easttown, The Flight Attendant, and Hacks on television’s biggest night, while talked-about dramas like The White Lotus and The Undoing have proved their staying power on the Top 20 months after their respective premieres.
Photo: Hulu
Hulu Maintains Momentum with Two More Strong Debuts
Star-studded comedy/mystery series Only Murders in the Building made its Top 20 debut at #4, while its new sci-fi drama Y: The Last Man took hold of #7. With other new series like Reservation Dogs, Nine Perfect Strangers, and American Horror Stories sticking around on the Top 50, Hulu has managed to build on its momentum from August. With returning series like Big Sky and new ones like Dopesick set for Hulu premieres in October, there’s good reason to believe Hulu might take HBO Max’s place at #2 in October.
Photo: Disney+
Down Goes Loki, and Disney+ with it
If Disney+’s coup in August wasn’t a fluke, the streaming platform’s ascent took a serious hit in September. Engagement around Loki dropped by a whopping 38%, bringing the show down two spots on the leaderboards, while What If…? dropped 17 spots from last month, falling off the Watchworthy Top 20. A small, likely Emmy-related gain for WandaVision and the appearance of new series Doogie Kamealoha, M.D., were bright spots for the streaming service in September.
Photo: Apple TV+
Watchworthy Tires of Ted Lasso
Ted Lasso was another show that hit it big at the Emmys, yet the comedy failed to break even the Top 50 on Watchworthy in September. It could be that viewers are finally experiencing Lasso fatigue after a very long marketing blitz that promoted the Jason Sudeikis-led comedy’s second season. In any case, Apple TV+s shows seem to have a difficult time staying on the leaderboards, with Mr. Corman, Home Before Dark, and See nowhere to be found in September. New sci-fi series Foundation debuted at #14 in September, but this pattern suggests that it won’t be sticking around the Top 20 for long.
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.
