Netflix dominates streaming on iPhone with 21 million U.S. users, study reveals

A new study backed by Apple and carried out to investigate the popularity of third-party apps on iPhone and iOS has revealed Netflix is by far the most dominant streaming app on the platform with 21 million daily active users.

The report carried out by Analysis Group and shared by Apple was likely commissioned to show the success of third-party apps on Apple’s App Store in order to try and answer questions about Apple’s App Store business model and growing concerns about anticompetitive behavior. From the release:

The report finds that third-party apps experience broad regional and global success on the App Store, demonstrating the breadth of opportunity for developers and the wide range of choice available to consumers around the world.

Figures detailed in the report from data.ai reveal that in the U.S., Netflix has 21 million daily active users, dwarfing its nearest rivals Hulu (4M), Amazon Prime Video (4M), and Disney+ (3M). To emphasize how “unpopular” Apple’s own apps are, figures indicate that Apple TV (notably not TV+) has only 1.2 million daily active users. That figure, accounting for July 2020 through June 2021, likely includes people who use the Apple TV app to access other streaming content on other platforms. Netflix enjoys a similar margin of dominance in the UK, France, Germany, and Australia & New Zealand. Japan was the only country listed where Netflix was not the most popular streaming app. The figures solidify that Netflix is the best iPhone app for streaming, or certainly the most popular thanks to its vast array of content and longevity, launching in 2007, the same year the original iPhone was released.

Quite astonishingly, the survey indicates that Apple only has a 0.05% share of streaming apps in the UK, with the app not in the top eight for streaming in either the UK, Japan, or Germany. By contrast, Netflix reportedly has 3.6 million daily active users in the UK.

You can read the full report here.