Max, discovery+ Drop 700,000 Streaming Customers in Q3 2023; Global Total Sits at 95.1 Million

The third fiscal quarter for most of the major tech and entertainment conglomerates has ended, which means it’s time to take the temperature of their various streaming platforms. Warner Bros. Discovery kept the ball rolling on Thursday, Nov. 2 when it unveiled its third quarter 2023 earnings report.

As part of the report, WBD revealed that its two streaming services Max and discovery+ collectively had 95.1 million global customers worldwide. That’s a decrease of approximately 700,000 subscribers over the 95.8 million streaming users the company reported at the end of the second quarter. In May 2023, the company’s decision to merge discovery+’s content with the erstwhile HBO Max caused the company to lose 1.8 million streaming customers.

Despite the quarterly decline, likely still from the all-but-complete merging of the redundant services, WBD did see a slight 0.21% increase in terms of total subscribers since the corresponding quarter in 2022 when it had reported 94.9M customers around the world.

However, while subscriber totals are important for streaming businesses, what has become far more valuable in the eyes of Wall Street investors is how much money each subscriber is paying. During Q3, the company reported an average revenue per user (ARPU) of $7.82 globally, an increase of $0.11 over the previous quarter and a jump from $7.38 from Q3 2022. WBD saw a $0.20 increase in the domestic ARPU to come in at $11.29; that marks a $0.63 year-over-year improvement.

How Does Max Stack Up?

Max’s subscriber totals still leave it well behind Netflix, though it was not expected that it would catch up to the world’s largest streaming service in just one quarter. Netflix now claims over 247M users, and though Disney has not reported its results for the last fiscal quarter yet, it’s highly unlikely that WBD will surpass its last-reported total of 146.7M global users for Disney+.

Peacock is still far behind Max, however, having recently revealed its subscriber total now stands at 28M. Paramount+ has not reported its quarterly results as of yet, but there’s little chance the company grew so far past its current figure of 61M users that it’s now beating Max. As always, neither Apple TV+ nor Prime Video report their subscriber numbers publicly.

Live Sports, News Debut on Max

The biggest stories of the quarter for WBD’s streaming services were the additions of live news and sports to Max. News from CNN was the first to join the party for WBD, as the streamer launched its “CNN Max” hub in August, complete with shows like “Anderson Cooper 360” and “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.”

Sports were next to join the party on Max. The service launched its Bleacher Report sports add-on on Oct. 5, which carries every sporting event available on TNT and TBS at no additional cost to subscribers until Feb. 2024. After that date, the price for the B/R add-on will be $9.99 per month, and will include streams of NBA, NHL, MLB, and U.S. Soccer games.

More live sports could be available on Max in the near future, as well. In September, it was reported that the service was negotiating a next-day streaming deal with AEW, the wrestling promotion that offers some of its weekly shows on Turner channels. WBD has also reportedly been in contact with NASCAR about securing a package of six to eight summer races every year.

Content-wise, the dual strikes by Hollywood’s top writers’ and actors’ unions have meant few new premieres of scripted television have come to Max in the past quarter. But the streamer did bring on seven series licensed from AMC+ in early September. WBD also sent several of its HBO Original titles to stream on Netflix, a tactic that has led to higher engagement for those shows on both platforms.

One factor that might lead to more customers streaming Max in the near future is the fact that discovery+ is raising the price of its ad-free tier. Ad-free discovery+ is now $8.99 per month, and customers may well decide they’d rather pay $1 more to get the same content on Max, plus all the HBO originals and Warner Bros. movies available on the streamer as well.