HBO Max fails to capitalize on House of the Dragon’s skyrocketing popularity
It sounds like you need more than dragons to entice audiences to your streaming service. Anyway, HBO Max has it.
Transparent Q3 2022 earnings report (opens in a new tab), Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) revealed that streaming subscriptions are growing across all three of its home entertainment platforms. For those who don’t know, that trio includes HBO MaxHBO and Discovery Plus, with the trio’s total global subscribers of 94.9 million paying customers.
Contextually, that sounds like good news for WBD. The entertainment giant, which was only recently formed after a merger between the two companies, added 2.8 million subscribers across three streaming sets between July and September 2022 – an increase small but seemingly substantial, pushing it closer to the 100 million total mark. For comparison, Netflix just added 2.41 million news subscribers in the same period.
However, while WBD can be proud of the new subscribers it has gained over the past three months, these numbers don’t paint the whole picture.
First, WBD declined to provide a full breakdown of how many subscribers each streaming platform has. Final official figures provided by Warner Bros. coming in April 2022 – Warner was an independent company at the time – revealed HBO Max had a subscriber base of 76.8 million (each Wire cutters (opens in a new tab)). In February 2022, Discovery confirmed that Discovery Plus had accumulated 22 million paying customers as of Q4 2021 (according to Diversity (opens in a new tab)). Add those two numbers together – that makes 98.8 million – and it looks like WBD did indeed lose subscribers between January and November 2022.
So what for? It is likely that, with the merger between Warner Bros. and Discovery, HBO Max paying customers and Discovery Plus simply lumped their accounts together in the total WBD subscriber count. However, without a complete breakdown of each platform’s fan base, we can only guess that this is the main reason behind this actual slight downturn.
Regardless of the murky nature of WBD’s total subscriber base, the fact that the mega-company has yet to pass 100 million subscribers is sure to be a serious disappointment.
That’s especially true of HBO and HBO Max. Dragon’s Housevery much expected Game of Thrones The prequel, which premiered on August 21, is already one of the most popular TV series of the year. According to WBD’s earnings report, House of the Dragon is the biggest premiere series in HBO history, with the high-fantasy drama R-rated in nearly 10 million viewers on opening night alone. The HBO Max show It was also the biggest series premiere on the streaming service in the United States and across Latin America and EMEA regions, with all episodes averaging 29 million viewers in the following weeks.
However, despite House of the Dragon’s skyrocketing popularity, it failed to boost WBD’s subscriber base for HBO and HBO Max. The movie may have some of the highest viewing numbers in 2022, but WBD has only turned 10% of that audience (2.8 million new users from 29 million House of the Dragon viewers) into paying customers. And those are new subscribers on HBO, HBO Max, and Discovery Plus. Not exactly convincing, right?
Even with a show that’s hugely popular, WBD’s streaming services can’t stand up to its rivals when it comes to a sizable fanbase. Despite the troubles, it suffers throughout 2022Netflix’s strong 223 million subscriber base ensures it remains the king of the streaming scene.
Disney Plus is catching Netflix, however, with the house of Marvel and Star Wars posted 152.1 million subscribers (each Diversity (opens in a new tab)) in August. Across all of its streaming platforms, including ESPN Plus and HuluDisney’s total subscribers are 221.1 million – further proof of how far WBD has to go when compared to its rivals.
Clearly, HBO Max and its cousins have a long way to go to catch up with Netflix and Disney Plus in the increasingly intense subscriber race. Fan favorite shows, including HeirHouse of Dragons, and Happiness, will continue to help it grow. And, thanks to our top catalog of programs and HBO Max movies, WBD should feel confident in entering the fray to reach as many viewers as possible. They only have two reasons why we think HBO Max is the best streaming service of 2022.
But all is not good news for HBO Max and company. HBO Max and Discovery Plus won’t stay in their current form much longer, with WBD planning to merge the streaming platforms into one giant service by Q1 or Q2 2023. A bull run is also plannedwhile the merged HBO Max-Discovery Plus platform could see a doubling of advertising on its ad-based subscription tier.
“Dreams don’t make us kings, dragons do,” Prince Daemon told Queen Rhaenyra during the season 1 finale of House of the Dragon. That may be true in Westeros, but it’s not true in the real world – and Warner Bros. Discovery should know that as it tries to assert its dominance in the streaming industry.
For more WBD-based content, read 5 big questions House of the Dragon season 2 needs to be solved. Also, learn how much does it cost to subscribe to HBO Max? right now, check out everything worth knowing about HBO’s TV adaptation of The Last of USor find out how to watch DC movies in order.