Streaming Wars • October 2023

Gen V Soars to #1 in its Debut Month

The spinoff of The Boys is the second Amazon Prime Video series to top the charts in Streaming Wars history.

The enduring popularity of The Boys has translated into massive interest in Prime Video’s first live-action spinoff series. Last month, Gen V became the first show from the Amazon streamer to reach the top spot in 2023. The only other Prime original to ever reach #1 on the leaderboards is The Summer I Turned Pretty, which achieved a similarly astounding debut in June of 2022. If the viability of The Boys’ fictional universe depends on the success of Gen V, these results suggest that fans should expect more spinoffs in the not-too-distant future. 

Behind Gen V was Netflix’s XO, Kitty, which rose to its new peak at #2, as well as Ahsoka at #4. Enthusiasm for Disney+’s latest Star Wars vehicle wasn’t strong enough to propel it any further after it climbed 25 spots back in September. Plus, after a stellar September, Peacock came close to achieving another Streaming Wars milestone — The Continental ranked #21, just short of where it needed to be to give its streamer three separate titles on the Top 20 at once.

THE LEADERBOARDS: TOP SHOWS

Special Ops: Lioness may not be moving toward the top as quickly as Gen V did, but its forward momentum is nonetheless impressive. The Paramount+ series has gone up 22 spots since August, now sitting at #3. Though its sentiment score has gone down since September, going from 92% to 81% in October, Special Ops is the only show from mega-popular creator Taylor Sheridan to reach the Top 5, outdoing 1893, 1923, and Tulsa King. 

If Peacock hopes to maintain a presence on the leaderboards, those hopes are likely best invested in Twisted Metal. The video game adaptation climbed nine spots in October to join the Top 10, while Peacock’s dark comedy Based on a True Story declined to replace it at #19. And while The Continental did improve its standing by 18 spots last month, the fact that its three-episode run has already elapsed, along with its middling sentiment score of 77% in October, casts doubt on its ability to thrive in November.

THE LEADERBOARDS: TOP PLATFORMS

But for now, Peacock’s position is better than ever. Its total share of Engagement reached 6.19% in October, the first time the NBCUniversal streamer has broken the 6% mark. Since becoming the #5 ranked platform in April of this year, Peacock has shown continued momentum, bringing it closer than ever to Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and Max — the “Big Four.” Now the streamer is just a little more than 3 percentage points behind Max, threatening to shake up the Streaming Wars’ longstanding status quo. 

Netflix, on the other hand, continued to decline, its share of Engagement dropping over a point since August. That doesn’t mean its dominance of the leaderboards is in danger, though — closest competitor Hulu is more than 10 points behind Netflix, despite a strong debut from Goosebumps that almost returned Hulu to the Top 20 for the first time in months. 

Finally, Apple TV+’s share of total Engagement shrank in October. That said, its shows also had the highest sentiment last month, beating out Peacock by two points with a score of 82%. The average score of its three titles on the Top 20 was a mind-boggling 96%. These numbers demonstrate both Apple’s weakness and its strength, as the platform enjoys strong ratings from its users, but not enough users to generate the Engagement received by shows on bigger rivals like Netflix and Peacock. Early reviews suggest that Apple’s rights to the new MonsterVerse series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, however, might do plenty to change that by bringing in new fans of blockbuster television. 

NEW PREMIERES

Much like The Summer I Turned Pretty last June, Gen V’s leaderboard performance came with an impressive sentiment score, netting 94% positive sentiment from our users. But Gen V was not the only show to have an impressive debut in October — joining it was The Fall of the House of Usher, dispelling any fears Netflix might have had that the Edgar Allan Poe tribute might go the way of last year’s Midnight Club. House of Usher was one part of a good month for Netflix, bringing its total number of shows on the Top 20 to eight, up from six in September. 

As mentioned earlier, the new Goosebumps reboot came just short of the leaderboards at #25, netting a 90% sentiment score. Also showing promise is Apple’s Lessons in Chemistry at #22 — though we said the same thing about The Changeling, which fell from #26 to #38 in October. As Apple’s output grows, it’s getting harder to tell which originals from the streamer will be able to generate momentum.

RETURNING SHOWS

Back with new talent behind the show’s two eponymous protagonists, Engagement for Rick and Morty actually fell in October, a bad sign given that the show’s seventh and final season premiered last month. On the bright side, its sentiment climbed two points to an impressive 92%. Anthology series American Horror Stories earned an 85% sentiment score the month of its “Huluween event,” while Loki jumped up to #9 on the overall leaderboards. That’s the highest rank it’s enjoyed this year, but it pales in comparison to the period of dominance it enjoyed following the premiere of its first season. 

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 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.

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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