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The relentless march of cord cutting continues unabated. For years now, consumers have been steadily cutting the cord and moving away from traditional pay TV providers towards streaming video services. This seismic shift in how consumers access and watch video content only accelerated further in 2025.
As we step into 2023, key statistics and trends make it abundantly clear that cord cutting will continue its ascendance in the year ahead. In this comprehensive guide, we take a data-driven deep dive into the key statistics and trends that will shape the future of cord cutting.
Defining Cord Cutting
Before we jump into the numbers, let‘s level set what exactly cord cutting means.
Cord cutting refers to cancelling your traditional pay TV service (cable or satellite) in favor of getting TV and video content via the internet. This content is accessed through services called over-the-top (OTT) streaming platforms.
Some examples of major OTT streaming platforms include Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Prime Video, HBO Max and many others. These platforms allow consumers to stream TV shows, movies and other video content directly over the internet to their smart TVs, streaming devices like Roku or Fire TV Stick and other connected devices like phones and tablets.
Cord cutting saves consumers money since streaming is cheaper than traditional pay TV. It also gives more choice and flexibility in the content they access.
Now that we understand what cord cutting is, let‘s look at the key statistics and trends shaping its adoption.
Cord Cutting Adoption Hits New Highs
Cord cutting adoption has been steadily rising for years now. However, in the last year it absolutely exploded reaching new heights, fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic:
- Over 31% of US households cut the cord in 2025, rising from 25% in 2021 according to eMarkerter data. This equals over 40 million cord cutting households.
- 72 million US households are now considered non-pay TV, meaning they never had pay TV or actively cut the cord, up from just over 60 million last year per Leichtman Research.
- Another report estimates an astounding 47% of households, over 60 million, will be non-pay TV by 2025.
The message is clear – cord cutting is entering the mainstream and quickly becoming the dominant model for TV viewing. The COVID lockdowns only served to accelerate adoption as stuck-at-home consumers sought cheaper options.
Steady Decline of Pay TV Subscribers
As more consumers cut the cord, pay TV providers like cable and satellite companies continue to haemorrhage subscribers quarter after quarter.
- According to Leichtman Research, top traditional pay TV providers lost over 5 million net subscribers in 2025. This decline is on track to reach over 6 million in 2025.
- The largest pay TV provider Comcast lost 1.2 million subscribers in just the first 9 months of 2022.
As evidenced, all metrics indicate rapid acceleration of cord cutting and traditional TV‘s downfall. Before we get there however, COVID lockdowns also fueled massive growth for streaming in a very short time.
Streaming Consumption and Adoption Skyrocket
While pandemic lockdowns decimated sectors like travel and hospitality in 2020, streaming services grew exponentially, driven by bored consumers stuck at home binging shows. Key statistics include:
- According to Deloitte insights, over 80% of US consumers now have at least one paid streaming subscription. This figure was just 70% pre pandemic in 2019 indicating explosive 10% growth in under 2 years.
- The paid streaming subscriber base in the US now numbers over 310 million, growing by an astounding 23 million in just 9 months of 2022 according to Deloitte.
- The frenzy in streaming subscriptions is also evident in the growth of market leading platforms:
- In less than 2 years since launch, Disney+ has already hit 164 million subscribers globally as of Q3 2022 according to earnings reports. Analysts think they could top 260 million by 2024.
- After years of slowing growth, Netflix rebounded fast adding over 13 million subscribers in the last 6 months. Netflix global subscriber base now tops 230 million as detailed here.
- YouTube now averages over 2 billion monthly logged-in viewers globally accessing an ever-growing selection of ad-supported creator content and YouTube TV according to internal Google data.
The streaming industry is now estimated to be worth over $210 billion globally. However, this breakneck pandemic fueled growth is stabilizing. The streaming wars will now enter a new intensified phase between platforms battling for market share in a slowing growth market.
Battle for Streaming Market Share Heats Up
While pandemic lockdowns acted as rocket fuel for streaming platforms to drive massive subscriber growth quickly, the market is now reaching saturation. The new phase of the streaming wars is a pitched battle between platforms for market share in a slowing growth environment.
- Streaming analyst OMDIA predicts the streaming market will reach over 1.1 billion subscriber homes globally by 2027, indicating slowing future growth.
- With market leader Netflix hitting subscriber saturation after the pandemic boost, rivals like Disney+, HBO Max and Paramount+ are aggressively trying to catch up and eat into their market lead.
- This will kickoff an intense phase of consolidation M&A activity as analysts forecast smaller streaming players will sell or combine.
- Discovery‘s recent merger with WarnerMedia consolidating HBO Max and Discovery+ is one such example of the consolidation trend.
The streaming wars entered overdrive during the pandemic. Now with subscriber growth slowing, streaming platforms will fiercely compete for market share. This will set off major M&A moves in 2025 and beyond.
Ad-Supported Streaming Sees Major Momentum
While subscribers showed their willingness to pay for streaming during pandemic lockdowns, a cost of living crisis fueled by high inflation is now seeing consumers cut back on discretionary spending.
This is evident in slower subscriber growth for market leader Netflix after huge pandemic gains. To enable cheaper or free content access in a tight economy, ad-supported streaming is gaining strong momentum:
- According to research by the Video Advertising Bureau, almost 60% of streaming subscribers now use ad-supported options alongside paid services. 38% use them exclusively saving on costs.
- In response to slowing paid subscriber growth and consumer demand, market leader Netflix is all set to launch its ad-supported tier costing just $7 per month vs $15.50 for the basic tier today. Though the timing remains fluid given internal turmoil, Netflix needs to counter rival discounted offerings.
- HBO Max With Ads debuted earlier this year at an affordable $9.99, 40% cheaper than the regular no-ads price. Early signs show strong adoption of the discounted tier according to Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav.
- Disney+ Basic also debuted overseas as a new discounted ad-supported offering, which Disney plans to expand across international markets later this year.
- Paramount+ and Peacock Premium continue to see strong subscriber gains fueled primarily by their ad supported offerings priced as low as $5 per month.
The streaming cost of living crisis will further propel ad-supported streaming into the mainstream as consumers seek discounted or free options to save money. Ad-supported streaming could make up 50% of subscriber mix by 2025 per Digital TV Research estimates.
Live Streaming Sees Explosive Growth
While binge watching back catalogs of movies and shows defined early days of streaming, consumers are now increasingly tuning into live streams for sports, news, events and more. Key metrics on live stream indicate explosive growth:
- Live streaming market size is set to almost triple from $106 billion in 2021 to over $314 billion globally by 2028 according to analysis from Grand View Research.
- Over 55% of consumers now regularly watch live sports, shows and events on streaming rather than traditional TV according to Deloitte Digital‘s media trends survey.
- Mobile-focused live streaming platforms like TikTok and Twitch continue explosive audience and revenue growth.
- Short form video powerhouse TikTok saw its monthly active users double year over year to reach 1.5 billion globally as of September 2022 according to internal data.
- Live streaming giant Twitch, now owned by Amazon, grew active streamers and viewing hours by 59% year on year according to Streamlabs, averaging over 2.84 billion hours watched per quarter.
The explosive rise of live streaming across both mass market and niche platforms indicates it is becoming central to mainstream streaming consumption. Consumers increasingly prefer to enjoy live video content vs. pre recorded shows and movies.
Digital Media Piracy Rates Spike
While the streaming industry has seen massive growth in recent years, so has digital media piracy fuelled by easy access via streaming platforms and piracy sites.
Key data points:
- By 2021, global video piracy site traffic had grown by more than 50 times over five years with visits exceeding 300 billion per year according to analysis from MUSO/Dataxis.
- Video piracy costs traditional TV and studios over $30 billion per year in lost revenue according to CNBC feature estimates.
- Leveraging global pop culture hits like Game of Thrones, streaming platforms and readily available piracy sites have also turned millennials into the largest drivers of piracy today at 37% based on research from Sandvine.
While not all pirated views represent lost revenue given streaming‘s growth, piracy enabled by better technology does dampen full streaming revenue potential across movies, shows and sports. Expect industry crackdown efforts on piracy sites to ramp up in 2025.
The Future is Streaming
As evidenced by all the statistics and trends above, streaming undeniably represents the future of video content consumption. However, the streaming industry is undergoing rapid evolution entering a new post pandemic maturity phase marked by slower growth and intensifying competition.
Key strategic battles that will define streaming‘s future:
- Pricing Power – Platforms will wrestle each other for pricing power as ad-supported streaming gains momentum. With inflation squeezing wallets, how low will prices go?
- Content Investment – Hits like Stranger Things fuel subscriber growth, but production budgets are ballooning. At what point does the investment bubble burst?
- Market Consolidation – M&A is poised to intensify between platforms in a slowing growth market. Who will end up owning who?
- Ad Experience – Getting ads right will make or break ad supported tiers. Too many or too irrelevant ads will turn off cost cautious viewers.
- Live Streaming – Consumer appetite for live video continues to rise. Can platforms scale technology and content investments to keep up with demand?
- Piracy Crackdown – Government policy and regulation will clamp down on streaming and piracy sites to protect media industry revenue.
If the last few years have shown us anything, it’s that the only constant is change when it comes to streaming. Market maturation will bring new evolutions and upheaval. The key statistics and trends above provide early signals on what’s shaping up for 2024 and beyond.
Fasten your seatbelts – the future of TV continues its accelerating transformation driven by streaming innovation. Savvy media executives would do well to closely monitor mission critical metrics covered here as the guideposts to where things are heading next. Only the most consumer obsessed, nimble platforms will survive the intensifying streaming wars in the years ahead.