Last year, as everyone knows, was inhospitable for the major streaming platforms: Disney lost $1.5 billion on its direct-to-consumer efforts in the last quarter alone; Netflix endured some of its worst subscriber growth ever; and Warner Bros. Discovery executives are staring down the barrel of $50 billion in debt and sizable hurdles to move from third place into second. Ironically, one of the few bright spots was the platform that had been essentially written off since its inception as a mess, with an unclear vision and tiered pricing structure (and with half of its content on Hulu and a crummy slate of its own): NBCUniversal’s Peacock. 

During its recent earnings call, Comcast announced that Peacock surpassed 20 million customers in 2022, adding 5 million subscribers in Q4. The company doubled its subscribers overall during a year where Netflix struggled to add 1 million in the same market. Sure, Netflix has more than 3.5x as many subs in the U.S. and Canada, at a far higher price point, but Peacock’s growing numbers are encouraging. Peacock also just ended its free tier option, showing a promising sign of confidence and what should amount to good news for average revenue per user (ARPU) growth.