{"id":82371,"date":"2022-03-07T07:43:43","date_gmt":"2022-03-07T07:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/corp\/?p=82371"},"modified":"2025-03-25T09:26:25","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T09:26:25","slug":"streaming-benchmarks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/research\/business-benchmarking\/streaming-benchmarks\/","title":{"rendered":"Which Giants Are Winning the Streaming Wars? [2022 Benchmarks]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Talk to any Gen Zer about the last commercial they saw. Chances are they don\u2019t even watch cable.<\/p>\n

Gone are the days when you were forced to watch “whatever’s on”. We now live in the golden age of video content, with endless options of digital entertainment available to watch whenever, however, and wherever we want.<\/p>\n

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and museums, malls, and other outlets shut down, the need for entertainment at your fingertips boomed, and with it, the number of digital streaming options to choose from.<\/p>\n

But as the world reopens, which streaming stars will be able to retain their new users?<\/p>\n

Let’s see which platforms are keeping customers stuck to their screens and which are getting switched off, plus prime opportunities to win viewership from competitors through the magic of market intelligence<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Streaming wars: The current leaderboard<\/h2>\n

With so many streaming platforms available today, the first step of your benchmarking strategy<\/a> should be to identify your main competitors. Enter\u00a0benchmarking, the key to smart decision-making, user retention, and success based on size,\u00a0audience demographics<\/a>, or audience geography<\/a>. But in this article, we’re getting straight to the good stuff by focusing on the top five industry leaders in terms of traffic share and monthly visits.<\/p>\n

The winner so far this year? YouTube.com.<\/a> \u00a0The video streaming OG owned 60.93% of the total traffic share worldwide in Jan 2022. Netflix.com, its closest competitor, owned 4.7%, followed by imdb.com (1.0%), hotstar.com <\/a>(0.67%), and hulu.com (0.4%). In addition to these streaming services, other top providers in the U.S. include hbomax.com<\/a>, peakcocktv.com<\/a>, and vimeo.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In addition to pointing TV junkies toward the best sites to binge their favorite shows, imdb.com offers its own streaming services. Thanks to this twofold tactic, the IMDB website snagged 584.9 million monthly views<\/a> in Jan. 2022.<\/p>\n

When we look at the top three websites for streaming TV and movies, the impact of COVID-19 and the holiday season becomes even more apparent.<\/p>\n

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Between Nov. 2021 and Dec. 2021, Netflix.com grew 9%<\/a> before leveling out in Jan. 2022 (just in time for new year’s resolutions, perhaps?).<\/p>\n

Now that you’ve got a better idea of how industry leaders<\/a> are performing, let\u2019s take a look at the average industry benchmarks for streaming sites to give you a broader picture of performance metrics to beat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Total visits<\/a> is one of the first website metrics you should evaluate to get a clear view of where you stand in the market.<\/p>\n

When comparing 2020 to 2021, the top 100 websites in the TV, movie, and streaming category had a 515.9 billion total, 5.5% more than the year before (488.9 billion). That’s a lot of eyeballs.<\/p>\n

\"comparing<\/p>\n

In the United States, streaming websites saw a 5.21% increase in total visits YoY from 2020 to 2021, rising to 103.8 billion.<\/p>\n

\"comparing<\/p>\n

In the last six months, traffic dipped slightly from 44 billion globally to 42 billion, before picking up to 46 billion in the last month \u2013 despite the continued relaxing of COVID-19 restrictions, users may have opted to stay inside and stream rather than venture out quite yet \u2013 especially in colder areas.<\/p>\n

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Sticky streaming<\/h2>\n

For online streaming, the stickier your website is, the more your viewers are enjoying your content.\u00a0 If you’ve got a sticky website, your users are happy with the services you offer and your audience is loyal<\/a> to you.<\/p>\n

Website stickiness<\/a> is calculated by dividing the average number of unique visitors<\/a> by the average total monthly visits. Remember that a unique visitor is one visiting your site or page within the specified period is counted only once.<\/p>\n

Top 100 websites in the category, May 2021, Worldwide:<\/b><\/p>\n