It’s official: You can add TV shows and movies to the list of things Apple does well.
That much is obvious, after Apple TV+, the tech giant’s linchpin streaming service, just had a remarkable second quarter. In fact, Apple TV+ made more appearances on Whip Media’s weekly TV ranker — which looks at the 10 most streamed shows in the U.S. each week — than any other service between April and June. Apple CEO Tim Cook is smiling somewhere after hearing that, probably.
Here’s the key numbers, via TheWrap this week:
Apple TV+ cracked Whip Media’s TV ranker 31 times during the second quarter, which was an 82% increase from its 17 appearances in Q1. Those 31 appearances also put Apple TV+ ahead of Netflix (26 appearances) and Max (18 appearances), as well as first-quarter streaming king Paramount+, which made Whip Media’s TV ranker 16 times during the second quarter.
And here’s the thing — it’s not just “Ted Lasso” driving big views for Apple TV+. Sure, the hit show — starring Jason Sudeikis as a fish-out-of-water American football coach who is now leading an English soccer club — was a major part of Apple’s streaming success in Q2; at one point between late April and early June, “Ted Lasso” landed among the top 3 most-streamed in the U.S. for 7 straight weeks. That’s an impressive for any show, no matter what service its on.
But there were other Apple shows that pulled viewers in, too. “Silo,” for example, was routinely ranked among the top three shows of the week in June. If you haven’t seen it yet, the dystopian series follows the last 10,000 people on earth after they’ve been forced to live in an underground silo a mile beneath the earth’s surface. And its eery premise is elevated by its all-star cast, featuring Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Robbins and Rashida Jones, among others. The show’s strong first season led to Apple renewing the series in June.
Overall, there were five shows responsible for Apple’s big Q2: “Ted Lasso,” “Silo,” “Schmigadoon!,” “Platonic” and “The Last Thing He Told Me.” Apple’s 31 appearances on Whip Media’s weekly ranker during Q2 were split among those series.
Shows weren’t the only thing working for Apple, either. As TheWrap noted: “Apple TV+ had a competitive second quarter on the movie side as well, with nine appearances on Whip Media’s weekly movie ranker during the quarter. That included ‘Ghosted,’ the action rom-com starring Chris Evans and Ana de Armas, becoming the first Apple TV+ flick to top Whip Media’s movie ranker back in April.”
Other big performers on the movie side for Apple included “Tetris” and “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie,” the Apple TV+ documentary that looks at the iconic actor’s battle with Parkinson’s disease. At one point in mid-May, “Still” came in as the sixth most-streamed movie of the week, giving it bragging rights as the best-performing documentary on Whip Media’s ranker this year.
As usual, Netflix lapped the pack with 41 appearances on Whip Media’s movie ranker in the second quarter, and Disney+ grabbed the silver medal with 30 appearances. Apple TV+ also fell behind Peacock (16), Max (15) and Paramount+ (12) during the quarter, but did finish slightly ahead of Amazon Prime Video, which had 8 appearances on Whip Media’s movie ranker during the quarter. Apple TV+ also scored more top 10 appearances than Hulu (4) and Showtime (1) in Q2. Apple’s 9 appearances on the weekly movie ranker during Q2 was also a 350% increase quarter-over-quarter, after it had just 2 movies crack the rankers between January and March.
Sure, you could point to Apple’s massive cash pile and say it has the resources necessary to crash the streaming party started by Netflix. But doing so is easier said than done — and Apple seems to be doing a pretty good job of it right now. That much is clear, after looking at viewership data from Q2.