The current winner of the streaming wars might not be who you think

When it comes to the streaming wars, we automatically look at the big powerhouses of Netflix, Amazon and Disney+ as the big players in the industry. However, new data from analysts AppAnnie has revealed who the true winner of the streaming wars is – and it’s not even close, with Google’s YouTube service easily dominating its competition taking more screen time than the other streaming services combined:

With YouTube dominating 70 percent of time spent in the top five streaming apps, the platform proves that it is still holding its weight among the acceleration of new video streaming platforms — particularly as it was an early pioneer in the market.

While we may not refer to YouTube as a streaming service given its very different approach and target market, the truth is that when it comes to catching people’s attention on screens, it dominates. Its success might be built on small videos and perceived lower quality entertainment than those big giants, but it can draw viewership numbers the other companies can only dream of. And it’s making a big profit, unlike those others who are still spending loads of money to create new and exciting content.

YouTube’s ultimate advantage is that it is free. That it has had a massive head start on the rest and has millions creating content for it without them needing to pay money upfront helps. It will be interesting to see as our viewing patterns change if YouTube’s dominance will just continue to grow or if the other big streaming service will steal that screen time away as people thirst for higher quality content.