Netflix has just been dethroned by Prime Video in the United States. Taking advantage of a moment of weakness, Amazon’s service managed to grab the top spot in the US market, in part thanks to its exclusive content.
According to data collected by the research firm Parks Associates, the giant Netflix has been thrown from his throne in the USA. Between January and September 2022, the total number of Netflix subscribers contracted sharply, the study points out.
Last year was particularly trying for the king of streaming. The consecutive price increases gradually eroded the platform’s customer base. In the first half of 2022, more than one million individuals canceled their subscription. Netflix managed to stop the bleeding in the second half of the year, in particular by flooding its catalog with new releases.
The first-half exodus was most pronounced in North America. As of September 30, Netflix did not count more than 73.4 million subscribers in the United States and Canada, far from the levels recorded in 2021. This undoubtedly explains why Netflix was able to be caught up, then left behind by a competitor in its native country.
The king of streaming has not been supplanted by Disney+, the ambitious outsider whose growth seems limitless. Disney’s service is in fourth place, just behind Hulu, the platform of the same group. Despite the explosion of its subscriber base, and a host of successful series, Disney + has not yet succeeded in gaining the upper hand over Netflix.
Read also : Netflix unveils the top 10 most-watched movies and series in 2022
Amazon Prime Video takes the lead
In first place in the ranking, we find Amazon Prime Video. Included in the Prime subscription, the streaming service inherits the first place. In previous years, the platform was content with second place on the podium.
Data provided by JustWatcha search engine devoted to streaming services, show that Amazon Prime Video has maintained its lead at the end of the year. Between October 1 and December 31, 2022, Prime Video captured 21% of the US market. Specifically, Amazon content accounted for a fifth of searches on JustWatch in the last three months of 2022.
According to JustWatch, Netflix finds itself in second place, closely following Amazon with 20% of the market share. Over the period, however, Netflix pulled out the heavy artillery with a handful of successful contentwhose Wednesdaythe series directed by Tim Burton.
Worldwide, Netflix remains number 1 in the streaming market. The platform has more than 223 million paying subscribers. For its part, Prime Video claims more than 200 million customers. The integration of the service with the Prime subscription obviously allows Amazon to inflate its results. Unlike Netflix, Prime Video is only one of the facets of a very complete subscription, which also and above all includes free deliveries on Amazon.
Prime Video, Prime’s growth engine
Nevertheless, it will be noted that the number of Prime subscribers has tendency to stagnate for two years. Indeed, Amazon already proudly announced that it had passed the milestone of 200 million subscribers by the end of 2021. A year later, the American group claims the same number of members. Growth seems to have stalled since the end of the pandemic, and the Prime subscription price hike shouldn’t help matters.
To support the growth of its program, Amazon intends to bet on the content available on Prime Video. According to Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, more and more people subscribe to the subscription for the sole purpose of watching certain series or films.
With this in mind, Amazon is continually expanding the catalog of Prime Video. Last year, Prime subscribers were able to enjoy several exclusive series, including The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Highly anticipated by fans of the saga, the series has been watched by more than 100 million Internet users since its launch in September, welcomes Amazon.
Jeff Bezos’ company does not hesitate to inject colossal sums in the production of exclusive content. For example, Amazon spent a billion dollars to acquire the rights and produce the series devoted to the universe of Tolkien. This is the most expensive series in history.
Deadline
