Streaming Wars, October 2023: The streamers get spooky

Every month, we read over the latest dispatches from the front lines of the Streaming Wars and assess how the likes of Netflix, Max, Disney+ and the rest are doing. Who won the day, who was defeated, and who’s biding their time? We mark it all down on this living graph, which changes every month.

Paramount+

Paramount+ had some buzzy titles this past month with Pet Sematary: Bloodlines and The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, but easily the biggest-ticket item was the revival of Frasier, the 90s-era sitcom starring Kelsey Grammer. Points: +2

Netflix

Between The Fall of the House of Usher, Bodies, Pain Hustlers, Lupin, Elite, Big Mouth, The Great British Bakeoff and more, Netflix never lacks for content. They even got the first Dune, which by rights should be exclusive to Max, but Warner Bros. Discovery sees the value in getting it more exposure. Points: +3

Disney+

The first season of Ahsoka ended and the second season of Loki began. That was pretty much it for Disney+ this month. They did get a lot of Air Bud movies. You like the Air Bud movies? Points: +2

Hulu

Honestly, there wasn’t much new on Hulu to speak of this month. However, we did learn that Disney would be buying the streaming service. Might they eventually combine Hulu with Disney+? Points: +1

Max

The big originals for Max in October were new episodes of Our Flag Means Death and The Gilded Age, with a side of Doom Patrol and standbys like Last Week Tonight. Beyond that, lots of library titles. Points: +2

Amazon Prime Video

Outside of a new season of the digital afterlife comedy Upload, there wasn’t a ton of original stuff worth talking about Amazon Prime Video this last month, although The Boys spinoff Gen V continues to be solid. I’ll give it an extra point for staying the course and including lots of library titles. Points: + 2

Apple TV+

Apple TV+ is known for having good shows that no one knows about, and there’s some of that in October with series like Still Up and Lessons in Chemistry. But Invasion has a slightly higher profile and The Morning Show is one of the biggest series on the platform. Points: + 2

Peacock

Peacock leaned hard into the horror of Halloween in October with new episodes of shows like Chucky, Wolf Like Me and John Carpenter’s Suburban Screams. It also featured the streaming debut of Five Nights at Freddy’s which has proved a pretty big hit. This is one of Peacock’s better months. Points: + 3

And you can check out the full living graph here:

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