Streaming Wars, June 2021: Disney+ holds its own against Netflix

Netflix continues to dominate the battlefield in the streaming wars, but Disney+, HBO Max and even Apple TV+ don’t make it easy for the old veteran.

It’s time for another edition of Streaming Wars, the monthly series where we track what streaming services are winning the fight for your time and money, and which ones are getting clobbered on the battlefield.

The way it works is this: every month we give points to different streaming services based on how much content they brought the previous month, how good it was, how many subscribers they gained, what moves they’ve made to better position themselves amid the fog of war, etc. Then we record it all on a big living graph that traces the history of this, the greatest battle of our times. Head here to check out the graph, and look below to see who got what points in June 2021:

Paramount+

Paramount+ is still one of the junior players in the streaming game, but it got some buzz in June thanks to the second seasons of Evil and Why Women Kill as well as hosting the sixth season of Rupaul’s Drag Race All Stars. Points: +2

Netflix

As usual, Netflix served up plenty of new stuff this month, from originals like Sweet Tooth and Lupin season 2 to old favorites like Downton Abbey. Points: +3

Disney+

Disney+ rolls on with new episodes of Loki, Star Wars: The Bad Batch, and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. Loki in particular is keeping Disney+ in the conversation. Points: +2

Hulu

Whether you like good movies (The Dark Knight, Slumdog Millioniare, Little Women), reality fare (Cutthroat Kitchen), or originals (Love, Victor; False Positive), Hulu had you covered this month, even if there wasn’t a ton of new stuff. Points: + 2

HBO Max

HBO Max got a bunch of a good movies in June, with the eight-film Harry Potter series being the crown jewel, although it’s only temporary. New movies like In the Heights and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It kept things fresh, and news that HBO Max could merge with Discovery+ previews a bright future for the service. Points: + 2

Amazon Prime Video

Signs, Step Brothers, An American Werewolf in London…Amazon got some solid library titles this month, but the original stuff — new seasons of Dom, The Family Man and Bosch — was nothing to write home about. Points: + 2

Apple TV+

Apple TV+ may not have a lot of content, but the stuff it does have seems to get buzzed about, helped in no small part by Apple’s massive marketing war chest. Lisey’s Story, Physical and the second season of Central Park all made waves. Points: + 2

Peacock

Peacock had some solid stuff in June — The Matrix movies, the Ghostbusters movies, the Jurassic Park movies, etc — but a lot of it is stuff you can get elsewhere, and the jury is still out on originals like We Are Lady Parts and Vanderpump Dogs. Points: + 1

Once again, you can see the full graph here, and trace the rise and fall of empires:

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