The pandemic taught us a lot of things, and one of those was how to be resourceful even when we couldn’t hang out with friends in person. It was a great year for having virtual movie nights with friends remotely by using co-viewing apps to stream our favorite films. Those types of watch parties seem to have caught on since new data shows co-viewing app usage is up 20% this year compared to 2020.
Hub Entertainment Research’s third annual “Evolution of the TV Set” report shows that nearly a quarter of consumers say they’ve streamed using a co-viewing app this year. What’s more, is the majority of those are coming from a younger demographic – 41% of viewers under 34 say they’ve used a co-viewing app before, while only 23% of people 35-54 and 3% of those over 55 have tried the feature.
If you’ve never tried a co-viewing app before, you’re really missing out. If you’re looking for one to try out, Amazon Watch Party is the most popular option overall with 44% of viewers saying they’ve used it. However, most of its users are adults 35-54 (57%) compared to the 24% of young co-viewers ages 16-25 who use Amazon Watch Party. So what are the kids these days suing to stream movie nights with their friends?
A third (33%) of 16-24s use Discord, which is a popular gaming communication app. Zoom was also on the list as the third most popular co-viewing app overall.
“Co-viewing apps and services are becoming increasingly important, no doubt driven in part by recent pandemic experiences,” said David Tice, senior consultant to Hub and co-author of the study. “Content distributors and streaming services that help enable this behavior will increase their appeal to young adults overall, and in particular young men. This is an important consideration with the advent of fully or partially ad-supported streaming services and the desirability of these key demos to advertisers.”