The streaming wars are upon us. While services like Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and Amazon have long represented the vanguard of the industry, a number of newcomers have begun to turn some heads, portending potentially seismic realignments in the digital streaming market.

And these aren’t small names, either. Indeed, as heavy hitters like Disney, NBC, HBO, Paramount, and Apple continue to roll-out revamped digital offerings, it’s tough not to recall that old line from the Who: “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”

Of course, the million (or perhaps billion) dollar question is this. How well are these Johnny-come-lately’s catching on? Well, it depends. Aside from Disney+ and HBO Max — easily the most disruptive of these new platforms — none have yet reached the pinnacles currently occupied by the likes of Hulu and Amazon Prime Video. And, indeed, the highwater marks set by YouTube and Netflix remained untouched, even by Disney and HBO.

At 42matters, we’ve analyzed how each of these new platforms has caught on. Check it out, here are the total global downloads for the Android versions of Disney+, HBO Max, Peacock, Paramount+, and Apple TV+:

Disney+ — Launched November 12th, 2019

• Total downloads: 100,000,000+

HBO Max — Launched May 27th, 2020 

• Total downloads: 10,000,000+

Peacock — Launched July 15th, 2020

• Total downloads: 5,000,000+

Paramount+ — Launched March 4th, 2021 (rebranded from CBS All Access)

• Total downloads: 500,000+

Apple TV+ — Launched November 1st, 2019 

• Total downloads: 100,000+
  
  

As you can see, Disney+ is easily the most disruptive of these new services, generating a staggering 100,000,000+ downloads since it launched back in November 2019. HBO Max, meanwhile, has tallied up some 10,000,000 downloads since it launched in May 2020. These are followed by Peacock (5,000,000+ downloads; launched July 2020), Paramount+ (500,000 downloads; launched March 2021), and Apple TV+ (100,000 downloads; launched November 2019).

That said, it’s really not fair to Paramount+ to compare total global downloads. After all, the service is still quite green — it was launched on March 4th, 2021! So, with this in mind, we also took a look at how these apps have fared so far in 2021. Here are the download metrics for the period between January 1st, 2021, and March 18th, 2021:

Disney+ — Launched November 12th, 2019

• Downloads since January 1st, 2021: 31,783,191

HBO Max— Launched May 27th, 2020 

• Downloads since January 1st, 2021: 3,882,666

Peacock — Launched July 15th, 2020

• Downloads since January 1st, 2021: 1,491,493

Paramount+— Launched March 4th, 2021 (rebranded from CBS All Access)

• Downloads since January 1st, 2021: 334,291

Apple TV+ — Launched November 1st, 2019

• Downloads since January 1st, 2021: 2,855
  

Disney+ is still the dominant new force, and clearly the most serious threat to Netflix’s dominance in the space. HBO Max and Peacock are still playing second and third fiddle, respectively. But the story is slightly different when it comes to Paramount+, which suddenly looks a lot more impressive. Indeed, while Paramount+ boasts more than 500,000 total global downloads, 334,291 of these have come since January 1st, 2021.

(Quick parenthetical here: If you’re wondering how Paramount’s numbers add up — considering it launched on March 4th, 2021, has 500,000+ total downloads, but only 334,291 downloads in 2021 — it’s actually pretty straightforward. The Paramount+ app has been around since 2019. Before March, however, it was called CBS All Access.)

In any event, it will be interesting to see how things play out. Disney+ is the obvious winner of the most recent batch of streaming platforms, but HBO Max and Peacock are also quite popular. It’s probably too early to make any conclusive calls about Paramount+, but it’s certainly a service worth keeping an eye on. And, despite the paltry download numbers, you would be a fool to dismiss a brand like Apple.

The bottom line here, things are about to get interesting for the old vanguard of the digital streaming space.

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