Tinseltown. It’ll eat you alive, especially if you’re a bright-eyed young streaming service newly arrived on the metaphorical bus, hoping to make it big in the recurring revenue biz. “A star.”
When our bonded courier dropped off the packet from PYMNTS Provider Ranking Research Facility and Café — located on Highway 12 by the big tree (no, the other tree) — we were stunned. So many changes. That’s just life in the Provider Ranking of Streaming Apps, kid.
It’s a game of inches, not yards, see? These competitors seduce with programming and playful features for a population that’s been on lockdown so long, we forget what the sun looks like.
The Top 5
Where to begin? Let’s start logically with No. 1, which goes to Netflix this month. We’ll see how their new password crackdown goes with subscribers. Another gainer at No. 2 is YouTube, which recently took on rival TikTok with short-form videos.
Dropping two positions to land at No. 3 this month is mammoth Disney+ which has been a roll since launch, and, at No. 4, Spotify is yet another chart-climber, pushing mighty Amazon Prime Video down one spot to No. 5, and completing the Top 5.
What did we say? Total thrill ride, and we’re only half done. Hollywood is like that.
The Top 10
Circling reliably at No. 6 once again is the Pluto TV app, with one of the streaming originals, Hulu, holding its ground quite calmly at No. 7.
The Funimation app, popular with the anime crowd, grabs the No. 8 chart position this month, rising one spot and knocking the Amazon Music app down one to No. 9.
Closing out the Top 10 in the new Provider Ranking of Streaming Apps is live game streaming app Twitch, keeping its No. 10 spot for another cycle.
Great stuff — but will it play in Pasadena? That’s a cliffhanger for the next ranking.
