This Streaming Service Has Scored Twice As Many New Users As Any Other In 2024

TOPLINE

Netflix and the streaming services of NBC, Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery have all increased paid U.S. subscribers to their services so far this year, a feat four other major streamers failed to achieve amid a contentious war for paid viewers that only continues to intensify as more TV watchers cut the cord with traditional cable services.

KEY FACTS

Netflix is by far the fastest-growing streaming service of the year with an addition of 2.6 million subscribers from the end of December to the end of May, the latest data available, according to Antenna, a platform that tracks paid subscriber numbers for advertisers.

Netflix scored almost twice as many new viewers as the next fastest-growing service, NBC’s Peacock, which added 1.38 million new paid subscribers so far this year.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max (once known as HBO Max) and Paramount Global’s Paramount+ (a successor to CBS All Access) are the other two streamers who’ve had a net positive change in paid subscribers in 2024, with 609,947 and 357,465 additions, respectively.

Each of the services that have gained subscribers has either played host to popular live content or streamed episodes of anticipated new shows—Paramount+, for example, carried the Super Bowl in February, and Max has had some of the most popular shows of the last year including “True Detective,” “The Last of Us” and “House of the Dragon.”

Peacock started streaming Olympic trials ahead of the 2024 Paris games and carries legacy “comfort shows” that are often subject to binge watching like “The Office,” “Parks and Recreation” and “Suits,” and Netflix, which has long been the winner of the streaming wars, had major wins this year with the live roast of Tom Brady, release of ”Bridgerton” Season 3 and “Fool Me Once.”

FASTEST-GROWING STREAMING SERVICES (DEC. 2023 TO MAY 2024)

Netflix: added 2,638,628 paid subscribers, 64.8 million total
Peacock: added 1,379,162 paid subscribers, 28 million total
Max (HBO): added 609,947 paid subscribers, 19.8 million total
Paramount+: added 357,465 paid subscribers, 31.8 million total

TANGENT

Antenna ranked the fastest-growing streaming services in terms of U.S. subscribers through the end of May. The company counts the number of paid accounts per service without including trial users who have not yet converted to paid subscriptions or select bundles or wholesale deals, such as Paramount+ via Walmart+ or Netflix for T-Mobile customers. Antenna uses information from several collection partners that provide digital purchase and cancellation receipts, banking and credit information and other data points to determine the number of paying service subscribers, cancellations and trial users.

KEY BACKGROUND

Netflix is by far the biggest streaming service worldwide and, in April, reported it had almost 270 million paid subscribers across the globe as of the first quarter of 2024, a 16% increase over the same quarter the year before. The company posted a first quarter revenue of $9.37 billion, up 14.8% year-over-year. Netflix was the first service to offer video-on-demand and it pivoted to original programming in 2012 and 2013 with “Lilyhammer,” “Orange Is The New Black” and “House of Cards.” Since then, Netflix has faced increasing competition as other companies spend billions to launch their own platforms and produce their own original content, as well as withhold their licenced works from streaming on Netflix. Shows like “The Office,” for instance, used to stream on Netflix but later left the service in favor of Peacock, the one owned by its original broadcast network NBC.

SURPRISING FACT

Four of the five shows that claimed the most-streamed title from January to May this year streamed on Netflix. “Fool Me Once,” was watched for 6.5 billion minutes to be the most-streamed show of January and “Young Sheldon,” which streams old episodes on both Netflix and Max, claimed the title in February. In March, Netflix original shows “Love Is Blind” and “Bridgerton” were the most watched shows in March and May, respectively. In April, Amazon Prime Video’s “Fallout” was the most-watched show across all of streaming.

CONTRA

Starz, Apple TV+, Hulu and Disney+ have all lost subscribers this year, according to Antenna. Those four services combined had 90 million paid subscribers at the end of May compared to the 144.4 million counted by Netflix, Peacock, Paramount+ and Max.

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BIG NUMBER

$635 billion. That’s how much the subscription economy is expected to be worth by 2025, according to Antenna.