Entertainment & Culture2011–2025

The Streaming Wars

Global paid subscribers of the big video streamers, from Netflix's lonely head start in 2011 to a crowded 2020s battlefield. Watch Disney+ rocket from zero to 100M in 16 months, the pandemic pour fuel on everything, and Netflix stumble in 2022 before the password crackdown reignites it.

Source: Company quarterly filings & press releases Amazon discloses Prime Video figures only occasionally, so its curve is partly interpolated from Prime membership data; Disney+ figures include Hotstar until 2023. Updated 2026-07-09

The race in numbers

0lead changes
15years covered
12contenders
Netflixlongest reign — 15 yrs at #1, wire to wire

Final standings · 2025

  1. 1Netflix310M
  2. 2Amazon Prime Video235M
  3. 3Disney+157M
  4. 4HBO Max / Max104M
  5. 5Paramount+77.7M

Key moments