In February, the most in-demand show available to stream on Amazon Prime Video was SpongeBob SquarePants. It had over 65 times the demand of the average series in February. This underscores the importance Prime Video has placed on Children’s content. Peppa Pig, another global hit with kids, was also among the ten most in-demand shows available on Amazon Prime Video.
Prime Video exists to help fuel the larger Amazon Prime engine, whether that’s attracting more people to sign up to the service with a new hit series like The Wheel of Time or retaining subscribers so they continue to spend money on the ecommerce platform. Kids’ content in particular is a powerful retention tool so it’s not surprising to see the investments the platform has made in this type of content; 20.7% of demand for all shows on the platform was for a kids’ series in February.
Half of the ten most in-demand series on the platform last month were Amazon originals, showing the platform’s commitment to produce quality original content as well as license popular shows for its catalog. Among these, two series have recently or are in the process of wrapping up. The Expanse had its series finale on January 14th. The sci-fi drama has been a flagship show for Amazon for years. Similarly, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel will release its final episode on March 11th.
With these longstanding hits coming to an end, it looks like it is time for a new era of Amazon Prime Video originals to rise to the occasion and fill the gap left by these finales. Recent premieres like The Legend of Vox Machina and Reacher are already attracting audience attention (both had over 20 times the average series demand in February). Key for Prime Video in the coming months will be continuing to prove its value to subscribers until September when the long-hyped Lord of the Rings series should finally start paying dividends on Amazon’s massive investment in it.
