Media

Streaming stats, mid-2022 edition

Netflix and Disney+ are on top as they prepare ad-supported tiers.
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Another earnings season has come and gone, and that means we have another good look at how the biggest streaming services on the market stack up in terms of size.

If you haven’t been keeping score, don’t worry—that’s what we’re here for. Here’s the rundown:

  • Netflix, which is readying an ad-supported tier for as soon as the end of 2022, is still by far the biggest streamer on the market, with 221.6 million subscribers, although it reported a slight downturn in Q2.
  • Disney+ is shrinking Netflix’s lead as it prepares its own push into ads: the service reported 137.7 million global subscribers, adding 7.9 million new subs from the prior quarter.
  • In third place is HBO Max, which, combined with HBO, counted 76.8 million subscribers at the end of the quarter.
  • Disney-operated streamer Hulu had 45.6 million subscribers.
  • Coming in fifth: Paramount+, which counted 39.6 million subscribers. (Add Showtime and other Paramount-owned subscription services like BET+, though, and the company touted 62.4 million.)
  • Unscripted streamer Discovery+ counted 24 million subscribers at the end of the quarter.
  • ESPN+, also owned by Disney, had 22.3 million subscribers.
  • NBCUniversal-owned Peacock brought up the rear with 13 million paid subscribers, but the company said it had 28 million monthly active accounts on its service, which has a limited free ad-supported offering.

Not included in our rundown: Amazon Prime Video, which doesn’t break out figures individually (but said last year there were more than 200 million Amazon Prime subscribers globally), and Apple TV+, which is estimated to have about 25 million paid subscribers but doesn’t break out figures.

+1: This year’s NewFronts presentations were all about just how big streaming is getting—but marketers are still hand-wringing about measurement.—KS

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Marketing Brew informs marketing pros of the latest on brand strategy, social media, and ad tech via our weekday newsletter, virtual events, marketing conferences, and digital guides.