Daily User Engagement Grew by 12% in 2023 for the First Time in Two Years While Smart TV Growth Expanded Big-Screen Dominance

NPAW, the global leader in video streaming analytics, announced today the findings of its 2023 Video Streaming Industry Report, revealing a significant year of engagement and quality improvements for the industry. 

The most notable finding of the report is the consolidation, in the second semester of the year, of the upward trend in daily user engagement for VoD and Linear TV, at 4% and 3% respectively. Following two years of declines, the amount of time the average user spends watching content per day increased globally in 2023 by 12% for VoD and 4% for Linear TV content. This pivot might signal an increase in consumption or a shift in the consumers’ attention toward a more selective number of platforms.

Episodic content continued to dominate as the primary type of VoD content for another year, capturing 67% of the total global playtime. However, movies saw a slight increase, accounting for 26% of all VoD minutes streamed in 2023.

Additionally, 2023 was also a year of significant improvements in the Quality of Experience front, both globally, with a global decrease of 38% in the buffer ratio, and regionally, with regions like Asia experiencing an 18% increase in the average bitrate. These boosts signal that there is still room for optimization of the viewing experience. 

At the device level, big screens extended their dominance in total playtime by up to 8 percentage points, driven by the growth of Smart TVs. This reaffirms that consumers overwhelmingly prefer big-screen experiences when streaming video content, reserving smaller-screen devices like smartphones for casual streaming or while on the move.

“​​These findings underscore a significant year of renewal and growth for the streaming sector. The increase of up to 12% in daily playtime per user, coupled with tangible improvements in the Quality of Experience, highlights how the industry is consolidating and evolving to meet and exceed viewer expectations, said Ferran G. Vilaró, CEO and Co-Founder of NPAW. 

“As providers navigate this journey of optimization, leveraging deep end-user behavior and experience data will be crucial in capturing the attention and loyalty of consumers. Understanding the insights derived from NPAW’s 2023 Video Streaming Industry Report will play a pivotal role in shaping successful streaming strategies moving forward”. Vilaró added.

For an in-depth look into the trends shaping streaming strategies around the globe, download the full report here.

This report examines the state of the video streaming industry on a global and regional scale, comparing 2023 engagement and quality data with 2022 numbers. The data analyzed in this report were extracted from the NPAW Suite from January to December 2023 and compared to data from 2022. They represent real-time data from over 190 global NPAW clients, including leading OTT providers, broadcasters, and telecom operators. As NPAW’s data library and client base are continuously evolving, the data presented in this report may slightly differ from previous iterations.

NPAW is an acknowledged global leader in technology innovations that track and analyze video consumption, user behavior, quality of experience, and quality of service, helping online streaming services grow. NPAW has over a decade of experience developing groundbreaking, scalable analytics solutions to optimize performance and user engagement, helping customers to build media experiences that maximize revenue. Its suite of analytics apps provides advanced visibility and actionable insights on platform performance, audience behavior, advertising and content efficiency, as well as app navigation in real-time to support data-driven decisions. NPAW serves more than 190 video services and processes over 100 billion plays per year worldwide. Established in 2008 by co-founders of the video streaming service Wuaki TV, which was later sold to Rakuten, NPAW has offices in Barcelona and New York with teams around the world.