Which Streaming Service Won The Year? And Which Lost?

Who won the year? My controversial opinion is that no streaming service won the year, but a network that has mostly been folded into a streaming service did! FX dominated the critical and cultural landscape this year with offerings like The Old Man, The Bear, Reservation Dogs, and What We Do in the Shadows…all of which went straight…to Hulu.

Who lost the year? Even though HBO Max managed to steal major pop culture conversation real estate this year with hits like Euphoria, House of the Dragon, and The White Lotus, new head honcho David Zaslav’s brutal decisions shelving movies and cancelling beloved shows have forever sullied the brand. HBO Max should be toasting a successful programming year, but instead the prognosis is bleak for this once great titan of the entertainment industry.

Who won the year? Hulu won 2022, easily. The streamer offered some of the best titles of the year, in a large part to its offerings from FX. Between The Bear, What We Do in the Shadows and Under the Banner of Heaven, it was hit after hit, with gripping dramas and hilarious comedies alike. Not to mention, Hulu is home to a bounty of network shows, like Abbott Elementary and Bob’s Burgers. Whatever you’re in the mood for, Hulu probably has it. And while you’re there, you’re likely to stumble across a new binge, too.

Who lost the year? Netflix was my least used streaming service this year by far. After clicking on its cheery red logo for years, I’ve been visiting it less and less as the content grows but the quality slips. While Netflix still has gems like the heartbreaking Dead to Me (which has sadly met its end) and the devilishly watchable Love Is Blind, visiting the platform at this point reminds me of a trip to the thrift store: you have to sift through some junk before you find a treasure.

Who won the year? Some victories are especially sweet, and that’s how I feel about FX’s 2022. For years, I’ve told anyone who would listen that once FX embraces a more streaming-focused strategy, it’ll be king. It’s taken a while, but that’s exactly what has happened. The Old Man, The Bear, and Welcome to Wrexham have emerged as the network’s most-watched drama, comedy, and unscripted series, respectively. But those are just numerical wins. They don’t account for the joy of What We Do in the Shadows Season 4, the profound art of Better Things and Atlanta’s final seasons, the brilliance of Fleishman Is in Trouble, or Reservation Dogs, a show as close to perfection as possible. No other network has a hits-to-misses ratio even close to FX. During a time when most networks are still throwing spaghetti at a wall to see what sticks, that consistent level of quality is a breath of fresh air.

Who lost the year? Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power was by no means a failure. The prequel was reportedly watched by 25 million people on its first day, making it the biggest debut in the history of Prime Video. But it’s hard to imagine that this show lived up to Amazon’s high hopes for it or its reported $465 million price tag. Throughout its Season 1 run, Rings of Power was repeatedly overshadowed by HBO’s House of the Dragon and later by Netflix’s Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. That’s a trend that’s continued as the year comes to a close and Rings of Power remains largely absent from most conversations about the best of the year. Yes, Prime Video released other acclaimed shows this year, like the delightful A League of Their Own, the cute The Summer I Turned Pretty, and, of course, Season 3 of The Boys. But when you spend so much on one series that it becomes THE story of your streaming service, you expect that show to be among the indisputable best of the year. When it comes to Rings of Power, that simply wasn’t the case.

Who won the year? Hulu took the cake. Through its partnership with FX, the streaming giant released back-to-back bangers with The Bear and Fleishman Is In Trouble, and the second season of Reservation Dogs. It is also a reliable source for next-day streaming when it comes to broadcast television, housing this year’s Love, Actually and Beauty and the Beast specials, and a few of Fox’s Animation Domination releases, like Bob’s Burgers and The Great North – without imposing an extra fee. These are all perks in addition to its growing collection of movies, which are an impressive blend of original and classics. Sorry, but Hulu is the only right choice here.

Who lost the year? Hating on Netflix is a major part of my personality, so I have to name it as the big loser. The streamer always has its finger on the pulse and has seen tremendous success with releases like Stranger Things and Inventing Anna, but its library is so cluttered with flops that I had to Google “Netflix releases 2022” to remember those two titles. And, on top of that, they continue to upset subscribers with changes to the platform (like an ad-supported tier), incessant cancellations, and talks of cracking down on password sharing. It’s a no from me, dawg.

Who won the year? It’s a tie! Now that Peacock is the streaming home to all things Bravo, I find myself spending more and more time on the platform. Even though I will never forgive them for canceling Saved By The Bell, the streamer has made interesting spinoff materials from existing IPs such as Pitch Perfect: Bumper In Berlin and Real Housewives Of Miami in addition to fostering exciting new originals like The Resort and Wolf like Me. While subscribers have to pay to receive more premium content, its ad-supported tier lets thrifty viewers keep up with their favorite Universal properties.

While their highly anticipated Halo series felt like a flop (or at least it did to the uninitiated like myself), Paramount+ has found success in investing in legacy properties (Star Trek) and creators (Taylor Sheridan). Plus, it has all my favorite Paramount sitcoms and reality programs readily available to stream in an easy-to-use interface! How could I not love it?

Who lost the year? Netflix is the streaming loser for me. Jacking up prices and adding an ad-supported tier? Massive layoffs of talented and hard-working staff for no good reason? Standing by Dave Chappelle after numerous transphobic remarks? Canceling The Baby-Sitters Club?! There’s just no contest! Honestly, if I didn’t have to watch Netflix content for work, I would have already canceled my subscription.

Who won the year? Pay no attention to their recent, mediocre Will Smith movie—Apple TV+ won the year. It started with the wonderful CODA taking home Best Picture in March, making Apple the first streaming service to nab the award. (Tough break, Netflix.) It continued with Severance, Decider’s pick for the best TV show of 2022, and my personal new LOST. And I’m telling you all, that Will Ferrell/Ryan Reynolds Christmas movie was pretty darn good. 2022 was Apple’s year.

Who lost the year? After such a strong 2021, all of the wind was taken out of HBO Max’s sails with the appointment of David Zaslav as CEO, who spear-headed the Warner Bros. Discovery merger and dialed way back on streaming originals. Certain theatrical movies quietly stopped arriving on the streamer after 45 days in theaters, going back on a promise that motivated many new subscribers the year prior. And sure, HBO still had House of Dragon in 2022, but HBO Max as a brand is all but dead. Also, apparently, it’s just “Max,” now? C’mon. That sucks.

Who won the year? This feels basic but I’ll go with Netflix. I mean, Bridgerton Season 2 right at the beginning of the year, Stranger Things 4 over the summer, and rounding out 2022 with the explosive Harry & Meghan docuseries? Unmatched. Plus, we can’t forget about all those Ryan Murphy hits, and Wednesday, which has completely taken over my TikTok feed.

Who lost the year? Sorry, Paramount+, you did not serve me well this year — simply because I haven’t watched any of your shows yet, which could just be a “me problem.” After all, I’m only on the first season of Yellowstone, which is on Peacock anyways.

Who won the year? HBO Max continued to turn out innovative and entertaining content that pushed pre-existing genres into bold new territory. Raised By Wolves, Legendary, F-Boy Island, Minx — no other streaming service’s originals can touch HBO Max because none of them are daring enough.

Who lost the year? HBO Max, because all of those innovative shows have been canceled and the streaming service itself seems to be living on borrowed time after being acquired by Discovery. Under David Zaslav’s direction, a man who famously hates scripted television, the once prestigious streamer has slowly added more lowest-common-denominator reality content, like Chip and Joanna Gaines’ Magnolia Network. This is like when Raised by Wolves turned a main character into a literal tree. What’s happening to HBO Max is terrifying.

If you look at the submissions from the staff, it’s pretty clear they overall preferred FX, via Hulu, as a winner this year; and HBO Max and Netflix are tied for loser. But let’s dig in a little deeper on each streaming service on an individual basis, plus some that were left out of the nominations. And perhaps more importantly, let’s rashly speculate about what their 2023 might be like.

Netflix

As mentioned all the way up top, this was a rough first half of the year for Netflix thanks to a lack of subscriber growth, bad press, some spotty big shows (Inventing Anna and Bridgerton were bright spots), and an end of the year that saw their ad-supported tier get off to a shaky start. And even though their blockbuster movies got huge views, did they make any sort of cultural impact? Where are my Gray Maniacs at? Still, Netflix is tops when it comes to subscribers, and as several folks mentioned shows like Wednesday, Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, and Stranger Things were cultural behemoths, as well as huge ratings wins. Going into 2022, the big question was what else does Netflix have other than Stranger Things? Now we know. Maybe.

Verdict: Winner (by last second decision)

Prospects for 2023: It’s an open question whether additional seasons of Monster can replicate Dahmer‘s success, whether a Wednesday Season 2 (the show has yet to be officially picked up) can replicate the first’s massive numbers without a breakout TikTok trend, and the stumble of the ad-tier is alarming. Netflix isn’t what it was two years ago, entering next year, but with a few wins under its belt it’ll be back on top. Or, continue on top, I guess.

Hulu

Though Hulu’s future continues to be in question in general given it’s not an international brand (Will it be consolidated into Disney+? Will Disney sell it to Comcast? Who knows?), yeeting the awkward FX on Hulu branding and just letting FX originals stream next to Hulu originals was clearly a massive critical win. Add in the strong slate of 20th Century Studios movies like Prey, Fresh, Hellraiser, Not Okay and more, and you’ve got a fully functioning streaming service, even with the loss of NBCUniversal shows streaming next day to Peacock.

Verdict: Winner

Prospects for 2023: Will Hulu be consolidated into Disney+? Will Disney sell Hulu to Comcast? How will the service survive without next day streaming from broadcasters, and with increased competition from various other streaming services? Though the future is always in flux for the green streamer that could, we’ve had plenty of time to know we shouldn’t count them out. And with the FX and 20th Century brands still going strong, until some suit makes a poor consolidation decision, Hulu should be here to stay.

Prime Video

We’re years into the launch of Prime Video, and it’s still not 100% clear what the streaming service is other than a nice thing to check out while buying Christmas presents. Amazon has found pockets of success, most notably the rapidly expanding The Boys universe, as well as their macho man action series (Jack Reacher, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, whatever the one with Chris Pratt was called), and are working hard to try to figure out the YA space with hits like The Summer I Turned Pretty. But what seems like their budgetary focus — fantasy — has been a mixed bag: Carnival Row was canceled before a belated second season even aired; Wheel of Time had mixed critical and fan reaction; and though Lord of the Rings clearly had some big launch numbers and solid Nielsen stats, as mentioned above, was it worth $465 million? The one clear, big win for the streamer is their Thursday Night Football block, which has expanded into a pre-show concert and interview show, with ample advertising space throughout Amazon’s navigation bar — aka, the best billboard space on the internet. But have all these elements gelled into a cohesive streaming network? Not really. Add in a difficult to navigate interface, and you have a service that feels like its in the toddler phase, when development-wise it should be on par with Netflix.

Verdict: Loser

Prospects for 2023: No new season of Lord of the Rings most likely until 2024 is absolute madness, though there’s more The Boys and its spinoff Gen V, as well as Wheel of Time and a God of War series in development. And hopefully Amazon’s deal with Mike Flanagan to flesh out their horror offerings will be more successful than their experiments with Blumhouse. For my money, they should jettison their scattershot scripted slate and lean into the one thing that’s killing it: live events and sports. But I also am worth several billion dollars less than Jeff Bezos, so what do I know?

HBO Max

For all the reasons mentioned above, this was a frustrating year for HBO Max. Huge shows regularly came out nearly every Sunday from the streamer’s namesake, HBO, including House of the Dragon and The White Lotus. Meanwhile, new chief David Zaslav cut costs by shelving movies including Batgirl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt, pulled multiple series from the service seemingly without warning, and generally gained a ton of ill will for a streaming service that — up until this point — seemed to be on an upswing. HBO Max closes out the year as a place where creators and viewers are both on rocky ground, not knowing if their favorite show will be available to watch when they wake up in the morning. That’s not a great way to inspire brand loyalty.

Verdict: Loser

Prospects for 2023: …Here’s the thing, though, and not to be rude about it: consumers have a pretty short memory span for these sorts of things. House of the Dragon came out around the same time there was a whole uproar about Warner Bros. Discovery pulling animated series from the service, and that show was still huge… All that talk of boycotting from Twitter paled in comparison to the pull of Westeros. Zaslav may not have the best bedside manner, but if HBO Max (or, if the rumors of are true, it rebrands as simply Max) in the New Year keeps pumping out hits, the losses, sadly, will fall by the wayside. The crass, business way of looking at this: the got rid of shows not a ton of people are watching, and are shopping them around to FAST services to make more money. If they instead pivot to HBO Max having a better hit to loss ratio on the shows, people will keep subscribing to the service. And with HBO on their side — and HBO chief Casey Bloys one of the few, clear people Zaslav loves (you can throw James Gunn on that pile for the moment, too), they’ve got that HBO hit machine churning out nearly every week. HBO Max is almost definitely here to say, no matter how hard the internet is grousing.

Disney+

Disney+ has been steadily building subscribers, and even nipping at Netflix’s heels… Sort of. The trumped up combo of Disney+, ESPN+, Hulu and Star may challenge Netflix globally, but it’s still not quite number one on its own. Yet. And even with some softer Marvel and Star Wars shows — Ms. Marvel and Andor, despite the critical acclaim, did not quite match up viewership-wise to other series in their respective franchises — Disney+ still had a solid year, particularly when you look at how nearly every one of the big movies released on the service was a hit per Nielsen’s regular streaming numbers. When you look at the end of the year, though, you’ve got a lack of those two major franchises, an ad-supported tier that is still a question mark, and biggest of all, the abrupt Changing of the Bobs… Bob Chapek, the Disney CEO who was all in on streaming, was kicked out of the company, and replaced by the previous Bob, Bob Iger. Though Iger was the one who sent Disney down this path in the first place, it seems possible that the “streaming first” nature of Disney may be changing as they look to tighten their belt.

Verdict: Winner (with an asterisk)

Prospects for 2023: See above, but after Chapek glowingly talked about how Disney+ would finally be rocking and rolling starting late this year with original content, the slate seems a little more like yacht rocking than heavy metal. How Iger will turn things around is a big question, though he’s shown a great affinity for the company and a smart eye for where it needs to go next. Plus, the eternal Disney+ problem: yes, there are a lot of originals being put out, and good ones at that — Willow and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series come to mind. But are enough people watching those shows, or is it still all predicated on Marvel, Star Wars, and the legacy Disney catalogue? Maybe that’s enough for some, but is it enough to finally surpass Netflix?

Apple TV+

For a service that was criticized early on for not having enough of a back catalogue/no licensed content, Apple TV+ sure is dropping nothing but bangers, huh? Ted Lasso was an early winner, but Severance broke out too, and it seems like people who forked out the $4.99/month for Jason Sudeikis’ mustache or Adam Scott’s innie and outie are discovering there’s a lot more to, well, discover on Apple TV+. Add in that it probably has the most robust and unique slate for families of any streamer, and that Apple budget behind every show, and Apple TV+ — while not in the subscriber numbers conversation — is definitely gaining fans, and quickly.

Verdict: Winner

Prospects for 2023: I mentioned $4.99/month, but there was a late in the game price increase to $6.99/month in October. Apple TV+ is still one of the best deals in the game, and as long as they don’t go all HBO Max and start eliminating their back catalogue, it’s only going to become more cost effective. Add in upcoming shows like Shrinking starring Harrison Ford, Martin Scorsese’s highly anticipated Killers of the Flower Moon, a new Vince Gilligan drama starring Rhea Seehorn, an expansion of the Godzilla Monsterverse for the first time on TV, and the return of a few favorites (Ted Lasso Season 3… maybe?), and barring any unforeseen hiccups, this could be the biggest year in the fledging streamer’s history.

Paramount+

Look, let’s be honest: if it wasn’t for one man, Taylor Sheridan, Paramount+ would be floundering. It’s surprising, too, because with years of practice thanks to CBS All Access and an enormous back catalogue thanks to Viacom and CBS (now the consolidated Paramount), you’d think this streamer would be a no-brainer. Instead, it still seems to struggle to have an identity other than “hey do you guys like mountains?” There are pockets of brightness, including having every Star Trek fan in existence subscribed to their service, and that back catalogue; Nickelodeon’s legacy content in particular is nothing to sneeze at. But really, it’s the quick pivot from the boneheaded decision to license Yellowstone out to Peacock, to essentially a new blockbuster Taylor Sheridan series nearly every week that makes this a destination. Otherwise, this would be on the same level as the last item on our list.

Verdict: Winner (with an asterisk)

Prospects for 2023: Those Taylor Sheridan series are only going to go forth and multiply, so Paramount+ should be set for the year. Add in that it looks like Showtime (with buzzy hits like Yellowjackets and Your Honor) will be fully integrated into the streaming pipeline, and perhaps less of a reliance on “why don’t we do that show you vaguely remember from MTV in the ’90s again, but with older people this time” and there’s a chance Paramount+ could find greater footing. But as is, other than Sheridan, it really needs to figure out what its brand is as a streaming service, rather than “a bunch of different brands that used to be run by two different companies.”

Peacock

Poor Peacock. Despite massive streaming events like Sunday Night Football, the Olympics, and even — finally — pulling NBC shows off Hulu and streaming them on Peacock exclusively, Peacock is coming off more like a Pea-cuck (please clap). It’s particularly frustrating for those of us rooting for the service, particularly because a lot of the originals they create are very, very good. Instead, they’ve canceled most of their comedies, Girls5eva moved over to Netflix, and nobody seems to watch the dramas, with some rare exceptions (see: Dr. Death). And despite having a FAST tier, something that none of the other streamers on this list can claim, Peacock still seems like the streaming service you forget even exists.

Verdict: Loser

Prospects for 2023: This next year really seems like do or die time for Peacock. They’ve got some moonshot style TV series queued up, including Mrs. Davis from LOST mastermind Damon Lindelof, and Poker Face starring Natasha Lyonne and directed by Rian Johnson. And there’s the second season of Bel-Air, the one show on Peacock that could be called a certifiable hit. But even if these series are great, will anyone remember that Peacock is free to watch? And if not, will NBCUniversal limp on with the streamer another year, or will it be the first casualty of Streaming Wars II: Electric Boogaloo?