Check out these crazy statistics from streaming services from last year

If you weren’t born under a rock, you may have noticed how we view our favorite content has transformed in recent years. Streaming services like Netflix and Amazon have invaded our homes, not only delivering the best network television and home releases of great films you might have missed at the cinema, but producing their own content, too.

Now each service is surpassing subscribers in the tens of millions – sometimes hundreds of millions – of subscribers, there’s enough in the bank for these industry upstarts to acquire and produce their own exclusive films and shows.

A Netflix Original, Roma, was just nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, and series like The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel and The Handmaid’s Tale are scooping up Golden Globe recognition each year, despite never airing in a live broadcast. Of course, stuffy awards ceremonies aren’t the be-all end-all of a quality viewing experience, but the landscape of content delivery has been completely rebuilt in the last few years.

Whether you’re on board or not is another question. Film Daily are all for it in theory. We’ve recently been championing some of our fave shows that unfairly got the can in the last few years. During our #SaveSaturdays campaign, we’ve been celebrating SVOD services like Netflix and Hulu due to their prime position for picking up some of the underrated shows fallen by the wayside.

Everyone was jostling Netflix during Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s brief window of cancellation before it was picked up by Fox, for example, and both Lucifer and The Expanse were lucky enough to be saved in the eleventh hour by Netflix and Amazon Prime, respectively.

That said, maybe there’s a relation between Netflix and co.’s contributions and movie theater chains losing customers year after year. Now that Originals movies are just about as good as the fare at your local multiplex, there’s definitely less incentive to fork over fifteen bucks a head or more every time you want to catch a dumb action movie, scare yourself silly, or even turn up for the latest from your favorite auteurs.

Either way, we’ve been astounded by how much streaming has taken over in the last year. Check out this selection of the wildest statistics from 2018.

Netflix has almost 150 million subscribers

Unless you hang out with people who solely read dusty old novels or listen to vintage jazz vinyl, chances are pretty much everyone in your circle of friends will have a Netflix account. It’s become almost ubiquitous – and it’s a little scary how quickly Netflix has grown into a household brand. And by household we mean every household.

Just like Coca-Cola, Google searches, and iPhones, Netflix is something you encounter almost every day. If you’re using an account, chances are you’re not the one paying for it – which brings us to our next point.

Two thirds of subscribers share their accounts

If you’re in your twenties and still refuse to jump off your parents’ subscription and get your own, don’t worry. We feel you. Everyone’s doing it and, in fact, it’s estimated that there’s an average of 2.5 different viewers on any given account. If we take that at face value, that alone comprises a viewership bigger than the entire population of the United States.

2 million people cried for five hours straight

This is Us has gained a reputation for being the most devastating drama on TV right now, but its heavy af subject matter still hasn’t dissuaded the most dedicated fans. Hulu reported 2 million subscribers binged the latest tear-jerking season in one five-hour marathon.

Subscribers aren’t put off by price increases

Both Amazon and Netflix hiked their prices by $2 in the last year, but they’re still projecting exponential growth in 2019. Is everyone getting richer? Guess we missed that memo.

Netflix is blurring lines

When does bingewatching a standalone miniseries essentially constitute watching a long movie? Last year, series like Maniac and The Haunting of Hill House changed our perceptions of what should be referred to as TV, and what can be classed as a lengthy feature film.

Earlier this year, Russian Doll blew our tiny minds and, given it falls just shy of four hours, isn’t that basically the same as watching a long-ass movie? Whatever we decide to call it, we’re just glad we’re living in an age where filmmakers and artists are given the tools to go wild and blow our expectations out the water.

Everyone ate up Bird Box

Despite inspiring the dumbest internet trend we’ve seen for a long time, the Sandra Bullock-led action horror was an incredible success. Riding off the coattails of A Quiet Place, the second sensory creature feature of 2018 was watched by over 45 million Netflix accounts within its first week, according to a Netflix report.

We still love a controversy

Maybe because of their damning reviews and mishandled exploration of weighty subject matter, both Insatiable and 13 Reasons Why made the top 10 of Netflix’s most-watched shows last year. The latter took the number one spot above faves like Money Heist, Black Mirror, and Jessica Jones.

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before gained a lot of fans

The charming, fluffy romcom was a mild success for the platform, but if you watched it, chances are you loved it. Netflix reported that more than 50% of the film’s viewers watched it a second time, if not more.

Most people are tuning in everyday

One of the most interesting statistics comes from Hulu, who reported at the end of last year that their 20 million subscribers average around 26 million hours of streaming each day. This could mean that streaming has become a lot more than an occasional alternative to cable TV.

The fans still call the shots

When faithful subscribers noticed a ticking time bomb on legendary sitcom Friends’s Netflix page, they were not happy. Initially slated to disappear from the site at the beginning of this year, the story prompted an uproar from a vocal pocket of Netflix viewers who were apparently only there for reruns of the classic NYC comedy. When the protest hit its peak, the streaming site caved and forked over a gigantic $100 million to Warner Bros. to keep the show for another year.

Moral of the story: don’t piss off your fans.