The streaming race felt a bit cooler in early 2024, but looking at revenue for the top streamers, that's not at all true. Not only did the top streaming apps end 2024 with more than $3.8B in net revenue, which is almost twice as much as 2023, but every app grew double digits.
Except for one.
I analyzed the most popular streaming apps, which include Max, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Peacock, Paramount+, and Hulu, to see if there's more money in streaming even though there hasn't been much in terms of new content, password sharing is no longer possible, and subscription fees continuing to grow.
And no, none of those factors mattered in 2024. Maybe just a little. Maybe. Because our App Intelligence shows that the group's collective net revenue, which is what's left after store fees, rose 120% in 2024. That's more than twice as much. And it was already in the billions to begin with.
Every app but one saw revenue grow double digits but it was Amazon Prime Video that saw the most growth - 61%, according to our estimates. Max was right below it with a respectable 56% increase in 2024 while Peacock and Paramount+ ended the year with 32% and 31% increases, respectively.
Disney, which led in previous years, had the lowest increase in 2024 with 23%, which isn't terrible, but many expected it to be on Max's level and that didn't happen. And then we have the other Disney property - Hulu, which saw revenue decrease by 17%!
Disney's decision to stop offering subscriptions on the App Store is seemingly a result of Apple's high fees, but and I've said this before, I think it's more about the platform's inability to attract and retain paying users at a low enough cost, which the numbers support.
Amazon has been aggressive on new content, and it seems to have paid off, and given the success of their latest release - Beast Games - I think it's something we'll see them continue to push into 2025 for the same reason Netflix got into live sports.
Content is still king!
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