The 10 Biggest Streaming Platforms Right Now

#10: ESPN+

We live in an age where it can often make a lot of financial sense for consumers to bundle up their streaming services, in order to save some money. Disney + recently added the options to include content from both Hulu and ESPN + for their customer base, the latter of which has assisted the ESPN brand in reaching more households. This also takes nothing away from the company’s basic cable model, which in 2023 reached 70 million homes the old fashioned way. Meanwhile, the flagship ESPN + has been reported at over 24 million subscribers during the summer of 2025, which certainly isn’t too shabby.

#9: Starz

It remains to be seen how successful Starz will be in the future, as more and more people join the conversation about paying for too many streaming services. This may eventually be the cable TV story all over again. The company did report a growth in viewership in the third quarter of 2025, as viewers stood by Starz’s home-grown content. The loss of titles owned by Lionsgate, however, essentially meant that Starz has been reliant upon the bundling model to raise their subscriber numbers. These did fall in the twelve and twenty-seven million range, depending on the source.

#8: Peacock

The story of NBC’s streaming service, Peacock, is a great example of a venture staying the course through rough seas and eventually making it out the other side intact. The initial launch struggled to find an audience in the streaming market, but the development of some strong original content, such as Rian Johnson’s “Poker Face,” has enabled Peacock to remain competitive within a crowded market. There have, admittedly, been reports about how Peacock’s subscriber base has been “stuck” at around forty-one million users throughout much of 2025, but this number isn’t exactly anything to sneeze at, right?

#7: Paramount +

There are a number of ways a streaming service can emerge out of the gate with an instantly competitive edge. One of those is to provide a rich and diverse back catalog of titles, and it’s here where Paramount + has thrived over the years. There’s just a wealth of fantastic content on the service that’s enabled Paramount + to grow to nearly eighty million paid subscribers in 2025. This isn’t only thanks to heritage titles such as the “Friday the 13th” franchise, but also kids content like “Peppa Pig,” and an ad-free upgrade that includes access to Showtime premium content, as a bonus.

#6: Apple TV

Let’s ignore for a moment the fact that the Apple Corporation doesn’t voluntarily give out its subscriber base to the public. Expert estimations of subscribers to the company’s Apple TV streaming service have been said to number over forty million paid users. These are folks that don’t receive access to Apple TV via a free trial or some other method. These numbers fall in line with the critical appraisal lauded to such original Apple TV programs as “Severance,” while the availability of other curated content on the service has certainly raised its profile over the years.

#5: Amazon Prime Video

The success of Amazon Prime Video needs to be adjusted, somewhat, since its wide viewership numbers will always be linked to its bundling with the parent “Amazon Prime” brand. Still, the fact that over three hundred million people view the ad-supported tier of Prime Video is nothing if not impressive. Meanwhile, the service also boasts a nice balance of vintage and original content, making it a “something for everybody” sort of proposition. This could range from live sports to made-for-Amazon programs such as the horror series “Them” or the witty, funny (but sadly canceled) “Étoile.”

#4: Hulu

The streaming wars are certainly not going away anytime soon, as more and more companies find out that bundling services and hiding numbers seems to be the wave of the future. The Walt Disney Company joined other titans like Apple in choosing to hide their subscriber bases for their main streaming service, as well as Hulu. This is despite recent reports of the latter retaining over fifty-five million subscribers that enjoy Hulu’s mix of movies, television and original programming. The Disney + service recently bundled Hulu along with ESPN +, essentially making it easier than ever for newcomers to Hulu to check out the hype for themselves.

#3: Disney +

The decision of the Walt Disney Company to join the streaming revolution was always going to be a big deal, with the results writing themselves in the years since the introduction of Disney +. The magnitude of Disney’s back catalog made subscribing a no-brainer for parents, but there were also the various, insanely popular IPs to consider. “Star Wars.” Pixar. Marvel. All of these and more can easily be browsed via the Disney + interface, and accessed at the click of a button. Granted, discussions of censorship have also emerged in the wake of how The House of Mouse polices its content, yet this has always been met by the “value for money” argument for those who’d rather go with the devil they know.

#2: HBO MAX

It doesn’t really matter whether you call it HBO, HBO MAX or simply MAX: the Home Box Office is content simply to have your streaming dollars in its proverbial back pocket. Over one-hundred-and-twenty-eight million subscriber streaming dollars, to be exact. The days of premium cable HBO may be over, but legions of folks stream the company’s original content. MAX also thankfully includes a lot of quality legacy content as part of its library, including adult animation from the Adult Swim vaults to other Warner Brothers Discovery IPs that many fans can’t live without.

#1: Netflix

You know you’ve made it into the cultural lexicon when your company’s name can be used as a verb. “Netflix and chill” notwithstanding, however, there’s clearly no unseating this titan of streaming services from its jewel throne of content. Netflix has grown from its humble origins as a DVD-by-mail company to become a go-to streaming service for millions of subscribers. The company reported over three hundred million paid subscribers in 2024, as Netflix holds court as the primary entertainment source for so many homes across the world. Movies, television, stand-up, original content and documentaries all make up the Netflix library, ensuring that there’s always something to watch.

Are you a cord cutter, or do you rely on an old school pair of bunny ear antennae? Let us know your cable and entertainment preferences in the comments!