Year-to-date, 2021 is the strongest year for US subscription streaming app downloads with 216 million across the top 25 apps, a 29% increase year-over-year, according to Apptopia's latest report, “Benchmarking the Streaming Video Entertainment Landscape”.
Netflix still leads the streaming industry, as it is available in the largest number of markets. Disney+ and HBO Max continues to do well with strong adoption from the major market of the United States, and continued international launches. Two of India's largest streaming offerings in Hotstar (owned by Disney) and ZEE5 made the cut, as well as two offerings out of China in WeTV (owned by Tencent) and iQIYI (owned by Baidu).
Besides these big name players, what stands out to me most is the performance of Pluto TV (owned by ViacomCBS) and Tubi (owned by Fox). Most well known apps are based on subscription revenue. These are the only two offerings on this top list to be supported solely by advertising revenue.
“Even with all these new players and heavy investment from large media corporations, Netflix is still the market leader in viewers' eyes. So much so that "Netflix" is a top 10 keyword used in the user reviews of all of Netflix's top competitors. The reviews mentioning 'Netflix' range widely in their sentiment for the respective apps, but the point is that every streaming service is constantly being compared to Netflix by its customers,” the report says.
This past quarter, the top 25 TV Network apps saw their first year-over-year growth since 2016, but they have been on the decline when it comes to attracting new users, as the number of cord-cutters continues to grow. Additionally, several traditional cable networks have launched subscription streaming apps, leaving their respective TV Network apps to see their usage fall significantly as viewers are directed toward the subscription option.