I last looked at the 10 most popular US-based streaming services in 2023, which in streaming terms feels like awhile ago. Thus I thought an updated look was in order.
That said, accurate subscriber numbers for streaming services are hard to come by. Netflix states they’ll no longer report subscriber numbers starting this year, while Apple TV+ has never officially released numbers. Amazon Prime Video, meanwhile, is conflated with Prime-proper subscribers (whose numbers also aren’t officially released). Thus, most numbers available are based on estimates.
Criteria
The information below is taken from Wikipedia (though the statistics there have accurate sources) and FlixPatrol. Unless otherwise unavailable, I’m counting the individual services separately, not combined (sorry, Disney Bundle). I’ve also left YouTube Premium out, as it’s more of a “pay to avoid ads in YouTube videos” service versus a traditional streaming service.
The top 10 US-based streaming services worldwide
- Netflix, 301.6 million subscribers
- Amazon Prime Video, 200 million
- Disney+, 124.6 million subscribers
- Max/Discovery+, 116.9 million subscribers
- Paramount+, 77.5 million subscribers
- Hulu, 51.1 million subscribers
- Apple TV+, 45 million subscribers
- Peacock, 41 million subscribers
- Starz, 27.9 million subscribers
- Curiosity Stream, 25 million subscribers
My thoughts
Again, despite all of the streaming wars hype, the two most popular services worldwide are old standbys, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Rounding out the top five are Disney+ (because Disney), Max (likely due to HBO’s popularity, especially in the US), and Paramount+.
FlixPatrol indicates Hulu is in the top five within the US (coming in at #3 behind Netflix and Amazon Prime, excluding Disney+’s unavailable American numbers). This tracks, as Hulu’s one of the longtime mainstay streaming services in the United States. While Hulu is a US-only service, the Disney-owned programming on Hulu is carried on Disney+ worldwide.
Max and Paramount+ are more popular than I figured worldwide, though Max’s numbers include traditional HBO cable subscribers and Discovery+ subscribers. Peacock’s less popular status seems to fit; losing Hallmark programming as of May 2025 won’t help. (Hallmark has its own streaming service, Hallmark+.)
Image by StockSnap from Pixabay
