Apple TV+ made up 8% of the U.S. streaming market in the third quarter, down slightly from the previous quarter, according to analysts.
While only a modest drop, the streaming service had been just behind some of its rivals, including Disney+ and Hulu. It’s now farther back.
Apple TV+ Q3 2024 marketshare slip
It’s easy to overestimate the impact of streaming services. Cable and broadcast still make up almost 50% of U.S. viewership while streaming makes up only 41%, according to Nielsen. Netflix accounts for only 7.9% of total viewership, for example.
But Apple TV+ isn’t the tiny sliver of streaming it used to be. As noted, it made up 8% of the total in Q3 2024, according to JustWatch. The previous quarter, it was at 9%. Viewership grew steadily throughout 2024 then dropped off starting in July.
That puts the service slightly behind Paramount+ (9%) and Hulu (10%), but growth by Disney+ (12%) means Apple is now well behind that rival.
Still, Apple’s streaming service has improved significantly in popularity. Apple TV+ had a mere 4% of the U.S. market in the third quarter of 2021, for example.
Photo: JustWatch
The fight at the top
But Apple nevertheless sits well behind the big boys. Prime Video (22%) and Netflix (21%) dominated the U.S. Q3 2024 streaming market.
“Prime Video managed to keep its first place rank, with a 1% lead against Netflix,” noted JustWatch analysts. “Meanwhile, Max is managing to stay ahead of major competitors Disney+ and Hulu.”
JustWatch says, “We based our report on the 13 million JustWatch users in the US selecting their streaming services, clicking out to streaming offers and marking titles as seen.”
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh Classic II (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer. He’s written for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview, and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
