Increasingly the number of live TV streaming services that report their subscriber numbers has dwindled. Right now, only Sling TV and Fubo announce their subscriber numbers as they are publicly traded. This means we are left to guess at YouTube TV, DIRECTV STREAM, and Hulu’s subscriber counts.
Note: DIRECTV STREAM stopped reporting subscribe numbers when AT&T spun DIRECTV out into its own private company.
So let us take a look at one measurement that can give us an idea of how large each streaming service is. That measurement is the Apple App Store’s top 100 entertainment apps. This looks at how often each service has been downloaded, giving us an idea of how popular each service is.
According to Apple’s App Store, here are the live TV streaming services in the top 100 entertainment apps and how they rate.
- Hulu #7 Overall*
- YouTube TV #13 Overall
- Sling TV #26 Overall
- Fubo #34 Overall
- DIRECTV STREAM #49 Overall**
- Philo #84 Overall
*Hulu includes on-demand and live TV customers as they both use the same app.
** DIRECTV STREAM has recently been renamed to DIRECTV in the app store and is for both DIRECTV and DIRECTV STREAM customers.
Note: These numbers are accurate as of May 8th, 2023.
Well, it is hard to tell how many Hulu customers are live TV customers it is increasingly becoming clear that Hulu and YouTube TV are two of the largest live TV providers for cord cutters.
Increasingly recently, cord cutters have been skipping live TV services. Instead, many cord cutters have been subscribing to just on-demand services. Sling TV and Fubo both reported losing subscribers in the 1st quarter of 2023, even though cord cutting is growing.
The great thing about cord cutting is the ability to pick what is right for you. Instead of just a few TV options, you now have a vast number of streaming services to pick from. If you are trying to decide what service is right for you between these options, check out our full comparison breakdown HERE.