Apple TV+ Has Highest Quality Streaming Library According to IMDb, But Is That Enough For Audiences?

Does quality or quantity matter more to streaming audiences? This is a question that plagues providers who are trying to attract more subscribers to their streaming services, and the way they decide to answer it determines what customers will see on their platforms. A new survey from Self Financial is helping to demonstrate which services have the most high-quality titles as measured by IMDb user ratings, and its data has important implications for streamers who are going to extreme lengths to offer high-quality or a high quantity of titles.

• Apple TV+ sports the highest total average IMDb ratings for its streaming library but also has the smallest number of titles of any streamer.
• Prime Video has the biggest library overall, though its proportion of high-rated titles as a percentage of its overall library is smaller.
• Apple TV+ finds itself in the enviable position of not needing a wide range of library titles to keep customers engaged.

Self Financial’s report shows that Apple TV+’s library is a hit among IMDb users. The average rating for Apple TV+ titles is 7.18 stars, a slight increase from the 7.08 the streamer boasted in 2022. No other service carries an average IMDb rating of more than seven stars for its content; Max has the second-highest average with 6.91 stars. Amazon’s Prime Video has the lowest average rating for its content, at 5.93 stars.

It must be pointed out that Apple TV+ has a vastly smaller library than any other streaming service, which helps it maintain a higher average rating for its shows and movies. Apple TV+ has 271 titles in its catalog as measured by Self, whereas Prime Video tallies 13,827, the most of any streaming platform.

Self’s data also breaks out the areas where Apple TV+’s quality shines the brightest. Its data shows that Apple TV+ scores best in the documentary, biography, LGBTQ+, sports, war, and thriller genres, though it should be noted that in many instances the streamer has less than 15 titles per category.

Data courtesy of Self Financial. ^ denotes a category in which the streamer has 15 titles or less.

Self’s data breaks down the quality versus quantity of all top streaming platforms in the United States market. Its numbers even include Hulu on Disney+; Disney officially rolled out the full Hulu on Disney+ experience earlier this week, and the combined libraries feature many, but not all shows available on Hulu thanks to licensing restrictions.

Is Apple’s Strategy Replicable?

Apple has been following a clearly defined strategy of offering only high-quality, original titles on its streamer. In addition to its streaming content spend, Apple lays out $1 billion each year on movies that it sends to theaters for limited theatrical runs before shifting them to Apple TV+.

Apple has steadfastly avoided bringing on licensed content or other catalog shows and movies in service to its quality-based approach. In early March, the streamer shifted gears slightly by importing a library of more than 50 movies not original to Apple, but many of the titles were only available for a matter of days. All of them will be gone from Apple TV+’s tile rows by the end of April.

The main reason that Apple can afford to continue pursuing this strategy in the face of a higher-than-average churn rate is that Apple TV+ makes up a very small portion of the company’s overall revenue. Most of Apple’s money is made through the sale of iPhones and other devices, so it can afford to run its streaming service essentially however it wants. The streamer is also considering launching in China, which would give it access to a customer base of more than 1 billion people and help the streamer scale.

Essentially the only other streaming platform that could follow Apple TV+’s approach is Prime Video. Like Apple, Amazon’s primary revenue generator is not its streaming platform, but its retail business. That means it could pour billions of dollars into Prime Video to ensure it creates only high-quality, original shows and movies if it chose, but instead it is bringing its platform closer in line with other subscription video services by rolling out an ad-supported plan and raising the price of ad-free streaming. Prime Video is plainly comfortable doing business differently from Apple TV+, and its hulking library filled with licensed titles is not likely to go anywhere anytime soon.