Amazon Subscribers Stats: How does It Change in 15 Years?

Amazon Prime Video is a video streaming service owned by Amazon that offers a wide range of film and television content, including movies, episodes, documentaries, original content, and live sporting events, allowing users to watch them over the Internet. Prime Video is available on a wide range of devices, and is one of the giants in the global streaming market.

• In 2006, Amazon Prime Video was launched as "Amazon Unbox" in the United States.
• It evolved into Amazon Instant Video in 2011 and began focusing on original content with the introduction of Amazon Studios in 2014.
• In 2016, the Amazon Prime Video service was made available to viewers in more than 200 countries and regions, including India, Europe, Mexico, and more.
• Prime Video then further established its competitive position in the streaming market with the success of a series of original series.

  According to the latest data from Amazon Prime Video, it already has over 180 million subscriptions in 2024, firmly holding a massive market share in the streaming service industry. Throughout the 15 years of data, Amazon Prime Video's subscription volume is still continuously increasing year by year. What is Amazon Prime Video's business strategy in the increasingly competitive streaming service industry? What insights can we gain from analyzing the fluctuation of Amazon Prime Video's subscription volume?

 2011-2024: 15 Years of Sustained Subscription Growth

Amazon Prime Video subscriptions have been growing consistently since 2011, with this set of statistics:

From 2001 to 2023, the total number of Netflix subscriptions continues to increase. There is this key set of data:

• In 2015, Prime Video crossed the 50 million subscriber threshold;
• In 2018, Prime Video had over 100 million users;
• Prime Video subscriptions reached 180 million in 2024, and are expected to potentially top 200 million in 2025;

After 15 years, Amazon Prime Video is still able to maintain subscription growth based on the following four business strategies:

Large Library Provides a Wealth of Choice

Amazon Prime Video tops the list in terms of total library, using the UK region library through December 2024 and the US region through Q3 2023, for example.

In the UK region, Amazon Prime Video's library of 20,487 titles (2,748 of which are TV shows and 17,739 are movies) is much higher than the other two major streaming platforms - Netflix (8,086 tites) and Disney (2,848 titles).

A large library provides customers with a wider variety of choices, both original and licensed, which can effectively attract customers.

Stable Content Investment Delivers Economic Returns

Comparing Amazon Prime Video's content investment spending over the past decade with that of Netflix, which is known as the "king of content", it is clear that Amazon has been increasing its investment in content in recent years, and even its content investment in 2022 will be almost the same as that of Netflix (both of which have invested more than $16 billion). Amazon expects to be able to use high-quality content to attract users, so as to continuously improve its competitiveness.

Comparing the growth rate of Amazon Prime Video's content investment in recent years with that of Netflix, it can be observed that, compared with Netflix, whose content investment has fluctuated due to epidemics and strikes, Amazon Prime Video's content investment has always maintained a stable positive growth. The steady growth in content spending reflects Amazon Prime Video's business strategy of emphasizing content output.

At the same time, the continuous growth of content investment also brings bright returns, according to IMDb audience rating to filter the most popular top 50 film and television works. The combined movie and TV results show that Amazon Prime Video takes a significant share. Especially in the movie segment, Prime Video came in second with 27% share, just behind Max (occupied 33% share).

Bundling Services Improves Subscription Value for Money

Taking the payment plan FOR each major streaming platform for 2023 in the U.S. as an example, compared to other platforms, Amazon Prime Video, with its backing of Amazon, can easily realize the linkage with other services under Amazon. For only $14.99 for Amazon Prime Video's subscription customers can enjoy a number of benefits. This bundling model makes Amazon Prime Video the most cost-effective streaming service and therefore more attractive to subscribers.

Strengths in Specific Niche Areas Enhance Unique Competitiveness - Sports Live Streaming

Compared with other streaming platforms, Amazon Prime Video also enjoys a unique competitiveness in the field of live sports. Since 2017, Amazon has been deeply engaged in the field of live sports streaming refinement.

Soccer: a core content of Amazon's live sports lineup, especially attractive in Europe and globally

Starting in 2019, Amazon Prime Video becomes one of the broadcasters of the English Premier League, making its first foray into live streaming of the UK's top soccer event

• English Premier League: starting in 2019, Amazon Prime Video is one of the broadcasters of the English Premier League. Amazon has the exclusive rights to broadcast some of the Premier League matches in the UK market (e.g. 20 matches throughout the year). This includes Premier League matches during important festivals each year, such as Boxing Day matches.
• UEFA Champions League: from 2023, Amazon has acquired the rights to broadcast some Champions League matches. For example, in the German region, they exclusively show the key matches on Wednesdays every week.
• Ligue 1: Prime Video has been a key platform for Ligue 1 broadcasts since 2021, showing over 300 matches per year. This plays a huge role in consolidating Amazon's streaming position in the French market.

American football

• In 2017, Amazon struck a deal with the NFL to buy global streaming rights to Thursday Night Football.
• Amazon's broadcast partnership with the NFL escalates further in 2022 when it begins as the exclusive broadcast platform for Thursday Night Football. The event is prime NFL content, airing more than 15 games per year.

Tennis: Amazon's presence in tennis continues to expand, attracting a high-end audience (ATP/WTA Tour and other major tennis events)

• US Open: Amazon Prime Video has been exclusively broadcasting US Open matches since 2018. It is one of the four Grand Slam tournaments, and as such is highly influential among tennis fans
• ATP TOUR: Since June 2017, Amazon has secured the exclusive streaming rights for the ATP Tour in the UK and Ireland (2019-2023 five-year deal). The deal covers a number of key events on the ATP Tour and is particularly popular in the UK and European markets

Sports documentaries

In addition to live streaming events, Amazon has released several high-quality sports documentaries to further enhance its brand appeal:

• All or Nothing : Amazon has partnered with 's top teams/sports teams through the All or Nothing documentary series, which takes viewers beyond the playing field.

Topics that have been covered include:

1. Soccer: Manchester City, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur
2. Football: Arizona Cardinals, Los Angeles Rams
3. Cricket: Australian Cricket Team

• Tennis documentary: Break Point: it deals with the stories behind the careers of top players and has sparked special interest among tennis fans.

future intentions

• Amazon is also aggressively competing for rights to new sporting events, such as global soccer tournaments (World Cup, etc.), Formula 1 formula racing, and Olympic broadcasting rights.
• In addition to traditional sporting events, Amazon has also begun exploring live gaming content, which complements the esports layout of its sub-brand Twitch. Some gaming tournaments and special leagues may be piloted through Prime Video.

2013 and 2017: Subscription Growth Reaches a Peak

2013: Investment in Original Content Pays Off

Amazon created Amazon Studios in 2010, with an initial focus on movie and script development. It was only in 2013 that Amazon began producing large-scale original TV series, marking its entry into the streaming original content space, where it hoped to attract Prime members with premium original content while competing with streaming platforms such as Netflix. The first original series such as Alpha House (2013) and Betas (2013) have been a huge success and a social hit - Amazon has managed to attract a number of subscribers based on the quality of the content.

The Daily Beats website also published an article called Inside the Political Fun House: How 'Alpha House' Became Amazon's First Big Hit in 2014, it pointed out that "Alpha House was the first original series released by Amazon Prime Video and rated Alpha House as the year's big hit; Forbes also noted that "The release of Alpha House was the first step in Amazon's redefinition of its streaming strategy. "

2017: New Expansion, New Content, New Beginnings

1. Global expansion

Since 2014, Amazon Prime Video has gradually begun its path of global expansion

According to the chart of Amazon Prime Video's subscriber growth in different regions from 2016 to 2020, 2017 saw an increase in subscriptions not only in North America, Western Europe and Asia-Pacific, but also tapped into the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East Africa and Latin America regions. The global expansion has reinvigorated Amazon and brought in a large number of new subscriptions.

2. Quality content

Amazon has significantly increased its investment in original content since 2016, in direct competition with Netflix at the production level. In 2017, Amazon's investment in original content is expected to reach $4.5 billion , close to the level of Netflix's investment in the same period.

Masterpieces of the period such as The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel , which won multiple Emmy and Golden Globe awards and became an iconic series that made a global impact for Amazon Prime Video, and Man in the High Castle received critical acclaim and a strong response.

3. live sports

ATP Tennis Tour Live Streaming

• In June 2017, Amazon struck a major deal with the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for exclusive streaming rights to the ATP Tour in the UK and Ireland (2019-2023 five-year deal). The deal covers all 37 ATP World Tour events, including nine ATP Masters tournaments and ATP Finals (e.g. the year-end tournament in London).
• This is the first time that Amazon has purchased exclusive streaming rights to a major sporting event, serving as a major entry into the live sports arena. The Guardian mentioned in its press release that the move will help Amazon boost its position as a streaming service platform.

NFL Thursday Night Football Live Streaming

• In 2017, Amazon struck a deal with the NFL to buy global streaming rights to Thursday Night Football. The deal covered 10 games in 2017.
• Prime Video is the first streaming platform to broadcast National Football League (NFL) worldwide. Amazon's move has significantly boosted Prime membership growth and has been a core initiative to expand its reach in the U.K. and U.S. markets. Amazon's vice president also mentioned in the interview that the initiative brings new value.

2013-2024: Overall Slowdown in Growth Rate

Comparing with Netflix's data, we can find that although both Netflix and Amazon Prime Video's subscribers are increasing year by year, it is obvious that Amazon Prime Video's growth has slowed down dramatically, showing a weak growth trend. And there are two main reasons for this phenomenon:

1. Intense Industry Competition

Today, the streaming market is increasingly competitive. Platforms such as Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Apple TV+, and Hulu are all aggressively acquiring subscribers and launching new original content. Each of these services has a unique positioning and appeal, resulting in more choices to distract consumers. For example, Disney+ has attracted a large number of subscribers with its strong IP resources (e.g., Marvel, Star Wars, Frozen, etc.).

According to the table below given by JustWatch, it is clearly observable that the market share held by Amazon Prime Video is on a downward trend (from 29% in 2010 to 22% in 2024). On the contrary, other streaming service platforms such as Hulu, Apple Tv+, Paramount, Max and Disney+ are showing a fluctuating upward trend, rising by 5%, 3%, 5%, 10% and 2% respectively by 2024.

2. New Area Development Program

Major streaming platforms such as Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video have embarked on global expansion programs. The expectation is that they will continue to open up emerging markets and bring in new subscription growth as the mature markets in Europe and the United States are becoming saturated.

Compare the global expansion timeline of the three major streaming companies: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ as follows:

By comparing the timelines, it is easy to find that Netflix, as the earliest streaming platform to open a global expansion strategy, has taken the advantage of time. In the case of Europe and the United States mature market has become increasingly saturated Netflix continues to use emerging markets to expand their global influence and penetration, thus becoming a streaming media service giant.

While Amazon Prime Video relied on the Amazon platform to quickly achieve streaming coverage in 200 countries, it lost out due to the slow pace of its globalization expansion strategy, which started a little late, and Amazon Prime Video's underdevelopment of emerging markets affected the growth of new subscribers.

2025: Projections for Future Development

Looking at Amazon Prime user subscription data from 2011 to 2024, Amazon Prime Video’s subscriptions continue to grow in 2024 and reach 180 million subscriptions in 2024.

Amazon Prime Video subscriptions have been growing at a low rate (no more than 4%) for the last 3 years. Meanwhile, a number of new changes have been announced for Amazon Prime Video in 2025:

1. Increased Number of Advertisements

As an example of subscription pricing for the U.S. market, Amazon's current subscription services include an $8.99 per month ad-free Basic package (which includes only Amazon prime video services) and a $14.99 Premium package (which includes all Prime services).

Amazon's Prime Video has always sold itself as an ad-free viewing experience, attracting a large number of subscribers. But in 2025, Amazon plans to increase the number of ads in Prime Video's base subscription, and to upgrade to an ad-free model, users will have to pay an additional $2.99. The change means that regular users will have to accept a certain number of ad interruptions while watching programs.

The decision was also widely discussed, with many news outlets suggesting that Amazon's move might anger users and lead to a slowdown in subscription growth in the new year.

2. Area Development Program

Amazon has announced plans to continue to explore markets such as Brazil Japan New Zealand in 2025 and has acquired MX-player India to increase its market penetration in the Indian market, the continued pioneering program may be able to bring new users to Amazon Prime Video.

3. 2025 Film Sheet

Amazon prime Video has released its slate of upcoming original TV series for release in 2025, not the least of which are Digital Trends' picks for the most anticipated series of 2025: On Call, Reacher, and Invincible. The release of these high-quality content has also made Amazon Prime Video appealing to viewers, promising to attract new subscriptions through high-quality content.

Combined with Amazon Prime Video's subscription growth in recent years and its new plans and slate of titles enacted for 2025, Amazon Prime Video's subscriptions are predicted to continue to grow at a low growth rate in the future and still dominate the market for major streaming platforms.