The Biggest 2023 Kids Content in US Streaming
I hadn’t planned another issue of The Kids StreamerSphere this week, but then Nielsen released their total 2023 numbers, which I started looking at, charts were crying out to be drafted, and here we are… a round-up of the key streaming content performances in the US last year. This is now the 4th year a cut of this data has been publicly published, and if there’s one thing I love about a data supplier, it’s consistency in reporting cadence.
Kids Series
The key headline for kids, which I’ve spoken about before, is that The Big Bluey Wave has hit. #2 in the overall ranking to be precise. What an achievement!
Bluey has been building since 2018 on the basis of first Australia, then the world! It jumped on board the Disney+ train, with a cheeky sidecar of Disney Channels worldwide. Now it’s here, it’s hot, it’s a content engagement tsunami.
A significant amount of this stratospheric uptick has been driven by Season 3 part 2, which dropped in July 2023. This pushed the show past 1 billion weekly minutes for a number of weeks, something that we’ve never seen for a preschool show in Nielsen before. This wasn’t necessarily a one off either; it popped back up to those levels over Thanksgiving and Christmas also.
That’s not all: new Bluey episodes landed on Disney+ on January 12th. Nielsen data isn’t in for those yet. I think the term you’re looking for is BRACE! BRACE!
It’s worth remembering, in the face of all this Bluey madness, that any reports of CoComelon’s death have been greatly exaggerated. Engagement with the IP remains steady and high. If you look above, you’ll see it’s still in the overall streaming Top 5. That’s three years on the bounce it’s been there, barely even dipping with the rise of Bluey.
CoComelon is in the diversification game currently, dropping spin-off shows on both streaming and YouTube. Whilst Bluey is still maturing, CoComelon has matured, and recognizes the need to be a bit more multi-dimensional in terms of next steps.
Shoutout to Gabby’s Dollhouse too. This is the only true streaming-first kids series to make the ranking, plus, speaking of maturity, it’s years younger than its competitors. It will surely be looking to emulate the gains of Bluey into 2024 and beyond. Kidscreen folks, if you want the insider scoop on this, make sure to drop into the panel I’m moderating on this wonderful show at the conference next week.
Kids Movies
The other key headline for 2023, which is precisely as it was for 2022, 2021, and 2020, is that kids movies remain big business in streaming. In fact, they owned the top seven slots in the ranking.
Notably, there wasn’t a standout premiere film leading the pack like there has been in previous years. When we consider launch dates, Minions: The Rise of Gru had the best shot at this, hitting Netflix in January 2023. The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Elemental both dropped in the second half of the year. Nothing came close to the monstrous performance of Encanto in 2022.
It was Moana that took the top spot, the little one-and-done movie from 2016. Sure, it was quality. It had a banging soundtrack from Lin-Manuel Miranda and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson voicing (I refuse to say singing). It also has a hilariously on point Honest Trailer which you should definitely check out.
What’s astonishing is that Moana actually grew viewership year on year in 2023. There has been much castigation, lamentation, and speculation about the state of Disney’s animated feature slate, but nothing says it more than “your audience is being pushed back to your old movies.”
Of course, this is one of the reasons Disney got into streaming in the first place. The datafication of the DVD player. Before, they might have had their suspicions that a movie which was eight years old may still hold strong resonance with audiences. There might have even been a few data tidbits to back that up. Now it is definitively proven, Moana is good business at Disney. A hot property. It would be such a shame if the animated series releasing in 2024 came in and mucked that up. This type of content oversaturation within franchises is another thing Disney are struggling with, as we discussed with Nina Hahn in this episode of the Kids Media Club Podcast.
Recent comments from Ted Sarandos of Netflix fully acknowledged that animated movies are a life blood of streaming. He specifically referenced their dominance in Nielsen performance. Netflix are still figuring out the flow of their content matrix of animated films. With Sing 2, Minions: The Rise of Gru, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie in the Top 10, the value of particular output deals they have in place is clear. The streamer doesn’t own these IPs, however, so isn’t in control of future deals and output.
Alongside films coming from 3rd party studios, they had their biggest launch of an Original animated film towards the end of 2023. Leo, starring Adam Sandler, did well globally, hitting it out of the park in the US specifically. Will Netflix ever get their act together so they really challenge Disney in this space? They’ve been talking about doing this for at least four years. And it’s not straightforward; development and production timelines for animated films are long and arduous. That being said, if there was ever a moment to challenge the pack leader, now, whilst Disney are in a full creative crisis, would be the time.