Sensor Towers’ “Q1 2022: Store Intelligence Data Digest” report saw HBO Max as a top competitor to the most downloaded apps in the United States. The app not only came on the top five list, but it also had the second best month in total in the month of January.
In addition, HBO Max had the best quarter in the US App Store for any SVOD (subscription video on demand) app since Disney + launched in late 2019, surpassing Netflix for only the second time.
In recent years, there has been a continuous increase in video streaming downloads as more consumers appreciate watching content on the go. The top six apps had more than 10% US download market share in Q1 2022, led by HBO Max (21%), Disney + (17%) and Netflix (15%). Meanwhile, Peacock, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video had at least 10%.
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In addition, HBO has been successful in adding new users since its launch in 2020. Its US MAU (monthly active users) market share increased from 4.5% in Q2 2020 to 10% in Q1 2022.
While Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video were the top three video streaming apps in the US from Q1 2018 to Q3 2019, with 80% of total downloads, in Q1 2022, the three streaming apps were combined for only 37% of downloads.
All in all, improved content offerings have resulted in a sustained upward trend in monthly users. In the 1st quarter of 2022, events such as HBO Max’s season two of “Euphoria” along with major US sporting events such as the Super Bowl (Peacock TV) and March Madness (Paramount +) contributed to a boost in adoption, giving these streaming services a competitive edge.
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The flaws of HBO Max’s app platform and plans for improvement
More and more consumers are turning to their mobile devices to stream their content, so it’s no surprise that HBO Max’s app got the attention of subscribers. However, users are frustrated with the platform and have been complaining about its performance for years. If the user interface is deficient, no amount of valuable content is worth dealing with interruptions and errors.
On the App Store, the app has a rating of 2.8, with many reviewers complaining that the app is “super buggy”, slow and poorly designed. Google Play users were a little nicer, giving the app a 3.7. However, most still complained about an “unfriendly” interface and constant buffering.
HBO Max is notorious for having unstable app performance. Its platform has generally had many issues, and not only were there outages last year June and Decemberbut there have also been crashes as the finale of “Mare of Easttown,” and recently “Euphoria” season two and “The Batman” were both down.
Sarah Lyons, head of HBO Max’s Product Experience, told Protocol that at launch, the company willingly released an imperfect app because the team reckoned it could get a facelift when the app became more successful. “We changed the engine on the plane while we were flying the plane,” she said.
The original app was based on the old HBO Go and HBO Now mobile and TV apps. HBO Go was intended for cable subscribers only, so it lacked a powerful discovery feature like its competitors, Netflix and Disney +.
Earlier this month, WarnerMedia finally got its Apple TV app fixed, promising it would roll out upgrades such as improved stability, a more simplified login process, and other new features. It has previously enhanced the app experience for Roku, PlayStation, Android TV, LG and Vizio. The desktop version also got a new shuffle button in March.
According to Lyons, crashes of the HBO Max Roku app have dropped by 90%, and download times on Android TV have dropped by 50%. She also told Protocol that Fire TV and Xbox apps would also be improved after the relaunch of the mobile and web experience. The platform will get a decent makeover as the team plans to improve in-app discovery, among other changes.
Warner Bros. Discovery now plans to merge the two streaming services, HBO Max and Discovery +, into a single app. While Discovery + has a lower US download market share than HBO Max in Q1 2022, its app rankings in the App Store and Google Play are significantly higher at 4.9 and 4.7, respectively. While this is obviously not an overall comparison, as reviews and rankings are only from a low number of users (less than a million), it is something to note.