The streaming boom is cooling, not collapsing
The chart above tracks the number of streaming originals indexed to a pre‑2020 baseline. From 2019 to today, the curve shoots up: by Q2 2023 the total number of streaming originals is more than triple the pre‑pandemic level.
After the COVID production dip, quarterly growth in new streaming series climbs steadily and peaks at a bit over 11 percent in late 2022. Then it cools. The first half of 2023 shows two consecutive quarters of slower growth.
So the volume is still huge, but the acceleration is gone. That has consequences:
- Weak commissioning strategies are harder to hide behind volume.
- Hit rates and catalog value start to matter more.
- Strikes and cost pressure push platforms to use existing content in smarter ways.
Netflix is still ahead, but others have momentum
The static snapshot
In this snapshot, Netflix still commands over a third of global demand, comfortably ahead of everyone else. Originals from the top three platforms Netflix, Prime Video and Disney Plus together account for just over half of global demand.
Apple TV Plus and Paramount Plus already stand out in that view. Apple sits at 7.4 percent share of global demand for streaming originals and Paramount Plus at 5 percent.
The trend over time
The time‑series version of that chart tells the more interesting story. At the start of 2020, almost half of all global demand for streaming originals belonged to Netflix. By Q2 2023 that is closer to one third.
Amazon Prime Video, meanwhile, has held a remarkably steady share around 11 percent despite the flood of new competitors. Its demand growth has essentially kept pace with the overall expansion of streaming.
The same trend view also highlights two climbers. In the latest quarter of the series, Apple TV Plus reaches 7.4 percent share of demand for its originals and Paramount Plus hits 5 percent. Those are their highest levels in the period shown.
Quality vs quantity: who is actually good at launching hits
The scatterplot of platform originals breaks all of this down at show level. Netflix and Amazon are a dense cloud of dots, reflecting the sheer volume of titles they release. Apple TV Plus and Paramount Plus each have far fewer dots, but a larger share of them live in the high‑demand area of the chart. Ted Lasso, for example, is the single most in‑demand streaming original of Q2 2023.
The chart below turns this into a simple “hit rate” metric. Define a hit as any series with at least twice the average global demand:
- Apple TV Plus has around 45 percent of its originals at or above that 2x level.
- For Netflix, it is closer to one in five.
- Hulu and Paramount Plus land somewhere in between.
- Disney Plus has some very big hits, but its overall hit rate lags Hulu and Paramount Plus.
It is tempting to read this as Apple being “better” than Netflix. The reality is more nuanced. Netflix uses a lot of its capacity for hyper‑targeted or local content that is not meant to be a global hit but is very useful for growing subscribers in a niche or a specific market.
In a slower growth environment, though, everyone has to care more about hit density. You cannot rely entirely on a long tail of lightly watched shows.
What audiences gravitated to in Q2 2023
Genre shifts you really should not ignore
In this chart, we track global demand share by genre over the last five years. The pattern is clear:
- Animation has climbed steadily since 2018.
- Documentary and children’s series have made smaller but noticeable gains.
- Reality and comedy have both lost share.
- Drama is still the single biggest genre worldwide, dipping only a few points from the low 40s to 39 percent of demand.
If your slate still looks like a 2018 schedule heavy on unscripted and broad comedy with a token kids section, you are swimming against this current.
The 10 biggest new premieres
The list of most in‑demand premieres of the quarter ranks shows by their demand in the first 30 days after release. Secret Invasion on Disney Plus sits on top with a 102.4x market multiplier, roughly double the second placed Citadel on Prime Video at 50x.
It is a very franchise‑heavy top 10: Secret Invasion (Marvel), The Walking Dead: Dead City, and Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story all lean on existing universes. Apple TV Plus lands three titles in the top 10, while Netflix has one.
An important detail: Secret Invasion benefited from a real gap since the last Marvel series, She‑Hulk, which premiered in August 2022. That breathing room allowed franchise demand to rebuild instead of cannibalising itself.
Local platforms quietly dominate at home
Global hits get most of the headlines, but demand data keeps showing that in many markets, local broadcasters and streamers are still in front.
Latin America
Across Latin America, domestic players often beat global platforms on home turf. In Colombia, RCN TV and Caracol together take over one fifth of demand. In Mexico, Las Estrellas is close to 10 percent. In Brazil, Globo is just under 12 percent. Local versions of global reality formats such as MasterChef Argentina and Gran Hermano Chile top their markets and help Telefe and Mega outpull Netflix on share of demand.
Thailand
Thailand is the clearest reminder that local taste rules. Almost half of demand is for drama, with romantic drama and rom-coms at the top. Channel 3 and GMM 25 both outrank Netflix on demand for originals, while Amazon Prime Video’s Thai series Home School still breaks through as the number two show of the quarter.
International content is not one monolithic trend
Non‑English viewing keeps climbing
Non‑English series have grown from about 23 percent of global demand in 2018 to nearly 40 percent so far in 2023. Audiences are clearly more willing to watch outside their own language, but what they choose varies a lot by country and demo.
Turkey and Korea are on different paths
In the US, demand for Turkish series has outpaced supply since 2020, while Korean content spiked around Squid Game, then saw supply keep rising faster than demand until a recent uptick.
The audiences are almost opposites: Korean series skew Gen Z and female, Turkish series skew 40‑plus and male. That makes them useful for reaching very different viewers.
Australia finds an audience in the US
Bluey has climbed into the top tier of non‑US kids shows in the US, and it is not alone. In 2023, new Australian premieres now outrank new British series on average US demand, helped by titles like Deadloch, The Clearing, Bay of Fires and The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart. UK and Australian shows share a similar audience profile skewing slightly female and over 40, so Australian imports are a natural extension for services that already rely on British drama.
How US platforms are leaning on international catalogs and pricing power
When you zoom in on the US, two things matter most: who has the strongest international cushion if domestic production slows, and who still has room to move prices.
Netflix and Prime Video lead on international supply
Among the major US services, Netflix and Prime Video stand out. Just over 60 percent of the titles in their US catalogs are non-US series, far ahead of the rest of the field. Yet on every platform, international shows account for a smaller share of demand than of supply, which means domestic content still pulls more weight. If strikes or cost cutting disrupt US production, Netflix and Prime Video are best placed to lean on existing international libraries.
Their regional focus differs. Max relies most heavily on other English-speaking markets. Hulu gets nearly three quarters of its international demand from Asia, helped by its Animayhem anime hub. Netflix spreads its bets more evenly across Europe, Asia and English-language markets outside the US.
Pricing still tracks demand quite closely
Total catalog demand across TV and movies shows a clear three way race at the top: Netflix, Max and Hulu. Hulu has the strongest slate of series, Max leads in movies, and Netflix is the most balanced of the three.
If you line up those demand levels against ad-free subscription prices, the relationship is almost linear. Services that deliver more demand charge more. Even the high priced Disney Plus / Hulu / ESPN Plus bundle fits that pattern, while Max sits a little above it, suggesting less room for further price hikes without adding content. The bottom line is that subscribers pay for demand, not brand count, so pricing decisions should follow what viewers are actually watching.
If you want to dig deeper into the numbers behind these highlights, here are two easy next steps:
- Contact our team if you would like a tailored view for your market, your platform or your content slate.
- Watch the webinar recording for the full walkthrough and download the presentation for extra charts that did not make it into this article.
