Streaming Wars • May 2023
Netflix Takes Up Nearly Half the Top 20 in Dominant May
Despite a rebranding and a flagship series finale last month, Max can’t match Netflix’s success when it comes to debuts — at least, not yet.
Wednesday came closer to the #1 spot than it’s ever been since debuting there in December of last year; new premieres The Diplomat and Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story both took Top 20 spots; even January’s That ‘90s Show surged up onto the leaderboards. Everything in May seemed to break Netflix’s way, giving the streamer the biggest share of overall Engagement it’s had since July 2022, back when Squid Game was still on the leaderboards. Netflix’s gain has been the loss of practically everyone else, save for the odd bright spot — for example, Apple had something to celebrate in Silo, the only show to break onto the leaderboards in May that doesn’t belong to Netflix.
Among the bigger disappointments last month was the newly rechristened “Max,” which fell below Amazon in terms of overall Engagement share. But by combining HBO’s programming with that of Discovery, Max is playing a long game that execs hope will see cord-cutter audiences returning to the kind of reality and documentary programming that has long earned the biggest ratings on linear television. With most of the attention on the departing Succession in May, there’s certainly reason for Max to believe that bigger things are coming a little further down the line.
Photo: The Diplomat, Netflix
From Wednesday to The Watcher, Netflix Takes No Shortage of W’s
Virtually every one of the nine shows Netflix has on the board in May is notable for some reason. Wednesday was just a few points shy of ending The Last of Us’s five-month reign at the top. Beef actually gained ground the month after a very talked-about debut. That ‘90s Show made little noise when it premiered last January, but staged a comeback out of nowhere thanks to a spike in Watchlist adds (though the show’s like/dislike ratio tells us it’s not pleasing everyone who watches it). Meanwhile, Ryan Murphy’s horror shows Monster and The Watcher have both demonstrated more staying power on the leaderboards than multimillion-dollar productions like The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Finally, The Diplomat impressed us with a debut at #16 — impressive for a clever, complex show about the often confusing world of American foreign policy — while Bridgerton showed its hold on our audience, as the spinoff Queen Charlotte immediately took a Top 10 spot. With none of these series aging out of the leaderboards any time soon, it’s hard to say when Netflix’s momentum will finally fade.
Photo: White House Plumbers, HBO
With Few Premieres in May, Max Must Bide its Time
Max had enough on its plate in May, finally introducing its transformation from HBO Max on May 23 and streaming the series finale of Succession five days later. The platform didn’t have many big new series debut in that time, but because the platform already had the attention of its users with these major developments, it didn’t seem to really need them.
But as time goes on — especially as skepticism over the streamer’s controversial decision to dump HBO from the branding heats up — Max will need to demonstrate that it’s just as capable of delivering conversation-dominating series like The Last of Us as it was before the rebrand. Going another month with just two shows on the leaderboards (though House of the Dragon scored a victory by rising back up to #3) is not a great sign for the streamer, with both Love and Death and White House Plumbers spending multiple months languishing outside the Top 20. Time will tell if Max’s gambit with traditional reality TV will pay off with streaming customers, but in the meantime there’s hope that the much-hyped The Idol premiering early in June, as well as a returning …And Just Like That, will boost the streamer’s standings on the leaderboards.
Photo: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Disney+
Even at its Lowest, Disney+ Keeps Three on the Board
Disney+’s slide has continued apace from April, with its only three shows on the Top 20 — Obi-Wan Kenobi, She-Hulk, and Andor — dropping near the very bottom of the leaderboards, in spots #17, #18, and #19, respectively. It’s certainly not the best position for the streamer to be in, but there’s some good news: it’s not likely to get worse.
First, just having three shows in the Top 20 isn’t so bad when you consider that the only platform with more shows in May was Netflix, while four streamers, including third-place Amazon, were held to just one. Second, with Secret Invasion premiering this month, there’s a chance that the platform will manage to put a new show on the leaderboards even if another show drops off of them in June. If it’s as successful as other Disney+ MCU shows, it could be the series that finally beats out both Wednesday and The Last of Us. Compare that situation to Peacock’s: Both Mrs. Davis and Bupkis failed to crack the Top 20 in May, and the platform’s only leaderboard entry, Poker Face, is slowly but surely dropping.
Photo: The Bear, Hulu
Hulu’s #2 Spot Has Never Been More Vulnerable
Falling below 13% of total Engagement share put Hulu just 3% ahead of its closest competitor last month. For as long as we’ve been taking score on the Streaming Wars, Hulu has been #2 behind Netflix, with every other streamer jockeying behind them. Though 3% is still a formidable margin (it’s rare that any streamer’s share rises or falls more by than 1% in any given month), it’s not good news for Hulu: their only major debut in June will be the second season of The Bear, a show that’s already in the Top 20. If any of Amazon’s newer shows like Citadel or Jury Duty pick up steam, it could put the streamer even closer to the second-place spot.
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.
