Streaming Wars, May 2021: Netflix brings out the big guns

In May, HBO Max brought us a Friends reunion special, Disney+ crossed 100 million subscribers and Netflix had a little something for everybody.

Every month, we record the latest skirmishes in the Streaming Wars, the ongoing battle between Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max and the rest to lock down your time and money. We keep track of everything on a graph that gets updated every month, or you can just read the latest dispatches from the front below.

How did the streaming wars go in May of 2021?

Paramount+

Paramount+ got some good stuff in May, including the Godfather movies, the PGA Championship, and even The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. But the only original is From Cradle to Stage, about the mothers of rock stars, which probably won’t get a lot of new people to sign up. Points: +1

Netflix

Whoo, Netflix had a lot of new stuff in May. You’ve got new episodes of Master of None, Selina, Castlevania, Lucifer, The Kominsky Method, Ragnarok and Love, Death & Robots; new series like Jupiter’s Legacy and Halston; and big-name movies like The Woman in the Window and Army of the Dead. And if you don’t like those, there’s always old favorites like the Back to the Future movies. Points: +4

Disney+

The big-ticket items for Disney+ this month were the new series Star Wars: The Bad Batch and Cruella, the latest of Disney’s villain origin stories. Plus, the streaming service officially crossed 100 million subscribers, which must make the execs at Disney very happy. Points: +3

Hulu

A new season of Love, Victor and a movie called False Positive starring Pierce Brosnan as a creepy fertility doctor are about the only original things that got the needle moving at Hulu this month. But there’re some good library titles like The Dark Knight and Slumdog Millionaire added. Points: + 2

HBO Max

On top of crossing 45 million subscribers, HBO Max had some good originals this month, including Hacks, the second seasons of Legendary and A Black Lady Sketch Show, and the Angelina Jolie vehicle Those Who Wish Me Dead, plus the ends of seasons of The Nevers and new hit The Mare of Easttown. But it’s really all about the Friends reunion, which made a lot of waves. Points: + 3

Amazon Prime Video

New library titles for May include the Alien movies, some M. Night Shyamalan films, a bunch of Madea movies, and more, although the only originals of note are the sci-fi anthology series Solos and the documentary The Boy From Medellín. Pretty quiet over at Amazon. Points: + 2

Apple TV+

This month, Apple TV+ got the second seasons of Mythic Quest and Trying, as well as a documentary called 1971: The Year that Music Changed Everything. It’s not that this stuff is bad — Mythic Quest in particular has amassed a fanbase — more that there just isn’t a lot of it. Points: + 1

Peacock

In May, Peacock got (some of) the Bourne movies, The Hobbit movies, the Vacation movies and other fun library titles, but originals like Intergalactic and Girls4Eva didn’t make much of an impact. Points: + 2

Check out our ever-evolving graph here:

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