Netflix Beaten on ‘Quality’ by Apple TV+ and Two Other Major Rivals, New Study Finds

Netflix is officially losing the quality crown. A brand-new study shows that Apple TV and two other major streaming giants have actually beaten Netflix when it comes to how good their content is.

We are used to seeing these companies fight over who has the most subscribers or the highest viewership numbers, but this new competition is completely different. Instead of just counting heads, this result was figured out by looking at simple but smart measures of actual quality.

The big news comes from a top independent research group called MoffettNathanson. They just created something called the MoffettNathanson Streaming Quality Index. This special index uses five specific signs to rank streaming platforms by quality instead of just looking at how many people watch. These signs include the specific time of day people watch, how much overall demand there is for the shows, how many different franchises a service has, how well-reviewed the content is by critics, and whether the platform offers live sports and events.

When you look at all of these factors together, Netflix lands in fourth place. The study found that Apple TV beats Netflix in overall content quality, even though the race is pretty close. Apple TV earned a quality score of 2.04, while Netflix came in just behind it with a score of 1.95.

It is a classic case of quality over quantity. Netflix has a massive library with shows from all over the world, including huge original hits like The Crown, House of Cards, Stranger Things, The Queen’s Gambit, and Adolescence. On the flip side, Apple TV has a much smaller collection of things to watch, but it hits the mark more often. It gives its users some of the most highly praised shows on television right now, like Severance, Ted Lasso, The Morning Show, Slow Horses, Silo, The Studio, Shrinking, and Black Bird.

Even though Apple TV beat Netflix, it did not take the top spot. Disney absolutely crushed the competition and came out way ahead of everyone else. Disney got a massive score of 2.98. It did so well mostly because it owns massive, highly successful franchises that people love, like Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar’s Toy Story.

Right behind Disney was HBO Max, taking second place with a score of 2.07. Because HBO Max is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, it gets to host legendary names like DC Comics, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, and Dune. This amazing lineup of famous stories is what helped it slide past both Apple TV and Netflix.

As for the rest of the major streaming services, they fell a bit further behind in the rankings. Amazon Prime Video took fifth place with a score of 1.33. Peacock was right on its heels in sixth place with a score of 1.32, and Paramount+ finished up the list in seventh place with a quality score of 1.29.

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