7 Best Streaming Services, Ranked by Their TV Shows' Popularity

By Richard Nebens Posted:
Hulu, Netflix, HBO Max, Iron Man, Eleven

The seven top names in the streaming world were organized into a ranked list based on the popularity of the TV shows they host from the first part of 2023.

While the first fiscal quarter of 2023 came as something of a disappointment theatrically with movies like Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania and Shazam! Fury of the Gods, the same can't be said for properties made for television.

Streaming shows are as important as ever to the world of entertainment, and even with the world returning more to normal after the pandemic, fans expect a certain level of quality from the top streaming names in the business.

7 Top Streaming Services Ranked by Popularity

The Wrap shared a new report from Parrot Analytics highlighting the seven most in-demand streaming services in the United States of America during the first fiscal quarter of 2023.

Parrot Analytics defines "in-demand" as the combined desire, engagement, and viewership from every piece of content on social media along with audience activity on free streaming sites and other sources like Wikipedia.

With the demand for a given movie or show being expressed as a share of the total demand of all movies and TV shows, the figures shown represent how much of that grand total demand was occupied by the series released by a given streamer.

Below are the top seven streaming services ranked by the total share/percentage of demand that all the shows on their platform garnered during Q1 2023.

7.) Disney+ (3.7% Demand Share)

Disney+ Logo
Disney+

While Disney+ is still known for holding the best that the House of Mouse has to offer from countless franchises and pop culture mainstays, it ranks last on this list with only a few big releases to start 2023.

January kicked off the year with the 16-episode run for The Bad Batch along with Willow finishing its only season pre-cancelation, along with the TV adaptation of National Treasure becoming part of the Disney+ family as well.

February delivered a highly-anticipated streaming arrival of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and while that doesn't factor into this series-based data, it was followed by a unique documentary series entitled Voices Rising: The Music of Wakanda.

Season 3 of The Mandalorian jump-started March before the Marvel documentary MPower joined the service, highlighting a number of female heroes' run in media.

With Marvel and Star Wars both not releasing too many big projects before the end of Q1, there was no extra boost for Disney+ besides a couple of ebbs and flows at the start of each month in this timeframe, likely hurting its overall performance.

6.) Peacock (4.4% Demand Share)

Peacock Logo
Peacock

Helping to host a number of major shows from NBC Universal and other popular TV networks, Peacock brings some of the top names in both cable programming and streaming shows to the forefront every single day.

January featured new programming such as the 58th season of Days of Our Lives and Season 5 of The Real Housewives of Miami while also serving as one of the main homes for the NFL's Sunday Night Football.

Premier League soccer and the PGA Tour took the spotlight for multiple weeks in February while the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reboot, Bel-Air, returned for its second season on February 23.

Rian Johnson's Poker Face came as the new highlight of March behind Natasha Lyonne, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jameela Jamil, and a host of other guest stars.

5.) Paramount+ (5.2% Demand Share)

Paramount+ Logo
Paramount+

Holding programming from CBS, BET, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, and a number of other notable TV networks, Paramount+ hosts a wide variety of unique shows from across the entertainment spectrum.

January brought the Season 2 premiere for Jeremy Renner's Mayor of Kingstown, which came shortly after his devastating real-world injuries, along with the debut of Wolf Pack.

February continued the hot streak with Season 3 of Picard, bringing Patrick Stewart's iconic Star Trek hero back for another round of modern-day adventures alongside his old castmates and new stars.

March then took the reality TV route with popular programming like The Challenge: World Championship and the Season 2 premiere of Queen of the Universe.

4.) Amazon Prime Video (5.9% Demand Share)

Amazon Prime Video Logo
Amazon Prime Video

Boasting a combination of original programming and shows from the cable realm, Amazon Prime takes its place as one of the top four names in the streaming business for the first quarter of 2023.

The Rig became Amazon's first release of the year in January, followed by Al Pacino and Jordan Peele's efforts on Season 2 of Hunters in the middle of the month.

February continued with a handful of big original releases, including the second season of Carnival Row featuring Orlando Bloom on the streaming TV side of things.

March was then driven in the TV streaming realm by the debut season of Daisy Jones & The Six, starring Riley Keough and Sam Claflin.

3.) HBO Max (6.2% Demand Share)

HBO Max Logo
HBO Max

HBO Max has slowly risen through the ranks of streaming services over the last couple of years on the back of not only its DC Universe content but other major franchises as well.

January brought the heat with the adaptation of PlayStation's The Last of Us, which became one of the best-reviewed shows in recent memory, although fans also saw the negativity that came with the release of Velma during that same month.

February took things back to the comic book realm with Kaley Cuoco's Harley Quinn as she teamed up with Ted Lasso's Brett Goldstein for Harley Quinn's A Very Problematic Valentine's Day Special.

Along with the last few episodes of The Last of Us, March also delivered the fourth and final season of Succession, one of HBO's most thrilling shows from the last few years.

HBO Max is also in a unique situation compared to its other competitors, as it has now been rebranded as just "Max" as of May 23.

2.) Netflix (10.5% Demand Share)

Netflix Logo
Netflix

Still standing strong after being introduced as one of the original streaming services, Netflix came in as the runner-up for the first quarter of 2023 in terms of popularity amongst fans.

January started with Giancarlo Esposito's Kaleidoscope before audiences got a blast to the past with the Netflix revival of That '70s Show, this time titled That '90s Show.

February took the documentary route with a tribute to late NBA legend and civil rights activist Bill Russell with Bill Russell: Legend along with Season 4 of Penn Badgley's You and Season 3 of the hit Netflix series, Outer Banks.

March kept the momentum going with Sex/Life Season 2 and the second season of Shadow and Bone while comedian Chris Rock had his own live comedy special under the title of Chris Rock: Selective Outrage.

1.) Hulu (11.9% Demand Share)

Hulu Logo
Hulu

Although the popularity race is a close one from top to bottom, Hulu beat out the rest of its competition to start off 2023 by less than one percent in popularity.

January kicked things off with the second season of Hilary Duff's popular How I Met Your Mother spin-off series, How I Met Your Father, before The 1619 Project provided a historical look at the USA's history of slavery and the contributions of Black America.

Things cooled off only slightly in February, with Wu-Tang: An American Saga and Season 3 of the revival of The Animaniacs being the highlights from the month.

March kicked things up to new levels with a couple of highly-hyped entries like Mel Brooks' History of the World, Part II, Keira Knightley's Boston Strangler, and three animated spin-offs from How to Train Your Dragon, The Croods, and Abominable from Dreamworks.

Appealing to all generations of TV watchers, Hulu's first quarter of the year stood out from the competition.

- About The Author: Richard Nebens
Richard Nebens joined The Direct in March 2020, now serving as the site's Senior Writer and also working as an assistant editor and content creator. He started his journalism career as a hobby in 2019 and is passionate about sharing news and stories from the entertainment industry, especially comic book movies, comedy, and sci-fi. Richard looks to expand his knowledge about movies and TV every day, and he is eager to stay locked into the latest releases and breaking news at every opportunity.