Paramount+ Tops in U.S. Subscriber Growth in 2021, Streaming Report Says | Charts

Paramount+ boasted 27 million sign-ups in the U.S. in 2021, outdistancing all other streamers, according to Antenna’s Year in Streaming Report.

Paramount+ did have the advantage of replacing CBS All Access, which first launched in 2014. “They’ve had a really good head start, with regards to user base and data,” media analyst Evan Shapiro, founder of ESHAP, noted.

CBS All Access/Paramount+ saw an enormous surge in sign-ups — over 5 million of its total haul — around major content moments, such as the Super Bowl. According to Antenna, more than 750,000 people signed up for CBS All Access on Super Bowl Sunday (Feb. 7, 2021), making it the biggest day-of user acquisition for any service that year.

Shapiro also noted another reason for the upswing in Paramount+ subscribers. “Part of it is their content, but having an ad-supported tier is also really important,” he said. “If you look at the platform chart, 31% of their subscribers are coming from Amazon channels. That’s enormously influential. Amazon Channels is a very good market, the [rate of cancellations, called churn] tends to be a lot lower for new services, specifically because it’s like a bundle.”

Meanwhile, HBO Max saw a loss of 4.2 million subscribers when it ended its relationship with Amazon on Sept. 15, though users can still sign up for HBO Max through iTunes and Roku.

Disney+, which greatly benefits from being bundled with Hulu and ESPN, recently announced an ad-supported option that will fit nicely with Hulu’s offerings, Shapiro noted. Only five of the 10 services that Antenna tracked in 2021 offered an ad-supported option: Discovery+, HBO Max, Hulu, Paramount+ and Peacock.

The overall number of streaming customers grew by 27% last year, Antenna reported, and most of that came from newer players like NBC’s streaming service Peacock, Apple TV+ and Discovery+. Unlike Netflix, these services get most of their sign-ups through app stores and third-party distributors.

Peacock saw a jump last year around the Summer 2020 games that finally took place in July 2021 after a one-year postponement — but lost a considerable amount to churn, Shapiro said. Now that NBCUniversal has ended its agreement with Hulu to stream content such as “Saturday Night Live” and “This Is Us,” viewers looking for those shows may boost Peacock’s 2022 numbers.

Discovery+, Paramount+, Showtime and Starz are all available as Amazon Channels, but exact churn numbers are hard to pin down, Shapiro said. According to Antenna, all Amazon Channels account for 18.2 million subscriptions or 41% of the streaming base that Antenna covers.

Antenna’s report tracks U.S. consumers billed via direct distribution, Amazon, Apple, Google Play, Hulu (add-ons), Roku, and YouTube TV (add-ons).

For the record: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported that the Antenna report stated that Disney+ had the most subscriber growth in 2021 globally. That has been corrected and TheWrap regrets the error.