How Peacock Became the Streaming Underdog That Could
This is a single insight from This Week in Apps - It's Peacock Time. Check out the full article for more insights.
The streaming wars have entered their chaos era. Disney is locked in a standoff with Apple that's blocking many from signing up. HBO panicked and changed its name again this year. And apps from China nobody's heard of are quietly crushing every traditional streamer in the US.
But the most shocking development? NBC's Peacock, the service some thought was too late to the game, is about to dethrone HBO Max as the highest-earning mobile streaming platform in the US.
The Old Guard Is Crumbling
When the year started, HBO Max and Disney+ ruled the streaming landscape. Peacock and Paramount+ were behind, fighting for visibility. That world is gone.
Using Appfigures Intelligence, I tracked revenue for the five major U.S. streamers: HBO Max, Disney+, Peacock, Paramount+, and Hulu, and the results tell a story of spectacular collapse and unlikely triumph.
HBO Max, which started 2025 as "Max" before reclaiming its HBO branding this summer, has hemorrhaged 14% of its revenue this year. The prestige play isn't working anymore. Meanwhile, Peacock has surged 25% and is now just a few subscribers away from claiming the top spot.
I didn't have "Peacock beats HBO in the US" on my 2025 bingo card. I don't think anyone really did.
Disney's Self-Inflicted Wound
The second battle is even stranger: Paramount+ has outpaced Disney+ in the US.
For two straight months, Paramount+, the service nyou don't hear about often, has outearned Disney's flagship streamer. Disney+ revenue has cratered 33% this year, largely "thanks" to the company's baffling decision to stop accepting new App Store subscribers in protest of Apple's fees.
The move was meant to send a message about corporate power. What it actually did was gift subscribers to competitors. You'd expect Disney's out-of-app-store subscription process to be extra optimized, but I went through it recently and can tell you it isn't. There's room for improvement.
Why Peacock Is Winning
NBC went all-in on a strategy that seems obvious in hindsight: give people what they actually want to watch. Live sports. Addictive reality TV like Love Island. Comfort-food reruns. It's not prestige TV or Marvel spectacle but rather what keeps people coming back.
And it's working! Not just in revenue, but in downloads too. Peacock's downloads are very close to HBO's so far this year and that's never happened before.
The Bigger Picture
Above all this industry drama sits a quieter revolution I've been talking about since 2023: short drama apps from China are outpacing traditional Western streamers in new downloads.
The streaming wars were supposed to be about which Hollywood giant would win. Instead, we're watching NBC's underdog service beat HBO's prestige machine while short drama apps from overseas rewrite the rules entirely.
In other words: it's chaos, and nobody knows what happens next. But right now? It's Peacock time.
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The insights in this report come right out of our App Intelligence platform, which offers access to download and revenue estimates, installed SDKs, and more! Learn more about the tools or schedule a demo with our team to get started.
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All figures included in this report are estimated. Unless specified otherwise, estimated revenue is always net, meaning it's the amount the developer earned after Apple and Google took their fee.
