Prime Video Surpasses Netflix As Most Popular Streamer In The U.S. For The First Time
Despite still being a widely popular streaming service, Netflix might be losing its ground in the streaming wars, at least in the United States. That's because it has been dethroned as the most popular streamer in the U.S., according to new data collected by research firm Parks Associates. In their new report, the firm claimed that the Amazon-operated Prime Video took over the spot, with Netflix falling to second place.
This might be a bit shocking for a few reasons, the most obvious being the sheer number of subscribers that Netflix boasts, both domestically and internationally. According to Statista, the streamer has approximately 73.3 million paid subscribers across the United States and Canada while also having around 223 million subscribers worldwide. Such large numbers begs the question, just how many subscribers does Prime Video have to topple Netflix from its coveted position?
Well, the problem is that we don't actually know. Amazon does not provide subscriber counts in its quarterly earnings, only reporting on them when they want to promote how popular something on Prime Video is. The last total we got from the company was back in April of 2021 when former CEO Jeff Bezos said in a shareholders' memo that their overarching Prime service reached 200 million subscribers (via The Hollywood Reporter). It's also unclear how many of these subscribers actually utilize Prime Video, as other supposed benefits of Prime include one-day shipping and Whole Foods discounts.
Other important findings
As for the rest of Parks Associates' findings, they are about what you probably expect. Hulu currently stands as the third most popular streamer in the U.S., with around 47.2 million subscribers. Its family-friendly contemporary, Disney+, is in fourth place, although domestic subscriber numbers do not appear to be available now (it currently has 164.2 million subscribers worldwide, according to Tech Crunch). HBO Max places fifth on the list with around 48.6 million users in the United States (via Statista), although that number may change thanks to the upcoming combined Warner Bros. Discovery service due for release in early 2023. Other services that made the list include Paramount+ at number 7, Apple TV+ at 8, and Peacock at 9.
As previously mentioned, there are a few weird factors to consider regarding this news. Sure, it might be easy to report that 25 million Prime subscribers watched the first episode of "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" back in September. However, if you don't regularly provide your total number of subscribers, then statements like these don't really matter. While it's interesting that Netflix apparently lost its luster in the States, at least they reported approximately how many subscribers they had. Without that critical number, it's hard to understand why we should care that Prime Video is currently the most successful streamer across the country.