The live TV streaming market has come a long way since the early days, and with a variety of live TV services to now pick from, consumers have more choice than ever before, and at varying price points.
All of which makes for an interesting landscape when looking at the number of subscribers each service has, how they compare to each other, and how those subscriber bases have changed (for better or worse) over time.
Subscriber Tracker — Summary
Disclaimer: The information listed in this tracker relates to the most recently confirmed subscriber numbers and does not take into account third-party estimates. Due to this, some of the figures might not be completely up to date and are dependent on when the company last publicly released data.
Subscriber tracker summary: updated Aug. 2024
| Service | Subscribers | As of |
|---|---|---|
| DirecTV Stream | 656,000 | Jan. 2021 |
| Frndly TV | 700,000 | Dec. 2022 |
| Fubo | 1.45 million* | July 2024 |
| Hulu Live TV | 4.4 million | July 2024 |
| Philo | 1 million | Jan. 2024 |
| Sling TV | 2 million | July 2024 |
| YouTube TV | 8 million | Feb. 2024 |
As seen in the table above, YouTube TV is the live TV streaming service with the most subscribers in the United States, and by some margin. YouTube TV is followed by Hulu Live TV and Sling TV in second and third place, respectively.
While the pie chart above excludes DirecTV Stream (due to the lack of recent data), it does provide some insight into how the main services compare in terms of their confirmed subscriber bases.
Subscriber Tracker — History
The information below provides a closer look at the subscriber history of the main live TV streaming services in the United States. You can use the links below to jump to a specific service.
DirecTV Stream Subscriber Tracker
DirecTV Stream is one of the few services that doesn’t provide information on the number of subscribers. As a result, it is currently unclear just how many there are and how the service compares to the competition. This wasn’t always the case. Subscriber numbers were previously revealed when the service was operating as DirecTV Now and AT&T TV Now.
Originally, DirecTV Now started off quite strong and quickly grew beyond one million subscribers. In 2019, the subscriber losses started and continued up until official numbers stopped being reported at the start of 2021, prior to the spin-off of DirecTV.
DirecTV Now/DirecTV Stream Subscriber History
DirecTV Now launched in late 2016 and was delivering live TV to more than 200,000 subscribers by the start of 2017. That number rose to 1,200,000 by the start of 2018, and to 1,590,000 by the start of 2019.
By the start of 2020, and following a rebrand to AT&T TV Now, the number of subscribers dropped to 926,000. The decline did not stop there, with the number confirmed to be 656,000 at the start of 2021.
The service was rebranded as DirecTV Stream soon after and subscriber numbers stopped being reported.
| As of | Subscribers |
|---|---|
| 2017 | 200,000 |
| 2018 | 1,200,000 |
| 2019 | 1,590,000 |
| 2020 | 926,000 |
| 2021 | 656,000 |
$80-165/mo
- 90-185 channels
- Unlimited streams
- Unlimited DVR
Deal: Get DirecTV Stream for as low as $49.99/month for 3 months.
Frndly TV Subscriber Tracker
Frndly TV launched in August 2019 and is another live TV service that does not provide regular updates on the size of its subscriber base. As a result, it remains unclear how many people are using Frndly TV from one quarter to the next.
The last time Frndly TV provided a subscriber update was back in December 2022. At that time, Frndly TV confirmed its subscriber base stood at 700,000.
$8-$12/mo
- 50+ channels
- 1-4 streams
- Limited DVR
Deal: Save more with an annual plan.
Fubo Subscriber Tracker
Fubo releases updated subscriber information each quarter making it easy to know how the live TV service is doing at any given time.
However, and unlike many of the other services on this list, Fubo operate in multiple countries. Due to this, Fubo tends to release separate numbers for North America and ROW (rest of world) markets, as well as a global total.
In spite of not being quite as popular as some other services, Fubo has consistently attracted more new users each year.
Fubo Subscriber History (North America)
Fubo was delivering live TV to 315,789 subscribers in North America at the start of 2020. One year later and the number of subscribers had grown to 547,880. By the start of 2022, the number of Fubo subscribers totaled 1,130,000, almost double what the service had a year before. After entering last year with 1.445 million subscribers, Fubo closed out 2023 with 1.618 million subscribers .
As of July 2024, Fubo had 1.45 million North American subscribers.
| As of | Subscribers (NA) |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 315,789 |
| 2021 | 547,880 |
| 2022 | 1,130,000 |
| 2023 | 1,445,000 |
| July 2024 | 1,481,751 |
$80-100/mo
- 195-270 channels
- 10 streams
- Unlimited DVR
Hulu Live TV Subscriber Tracker
The Walt Disney Company releases subscriber numbers for Hulu Live TV each quarter along with the latest basic Hulu, Disney Plus and ESPN Plus numbers. In general, Hulu Live TV continues to be one of the more popular live TV streaming services in the United States.
In spite of its popularity, Hulu Live TV appears to have stalled a little in terms of growth. While Hulu quickly climbed up to four million subscribers, its subscriber base has largely leveled off since then.
Hulu Live TV Subscriber History
Hulu launched its live TV service in May of 2017, and by September of 2018, was already serving more than one million subscribers. That number increased to over three million by 2020 and four million by 2021. While the number of subscribers have increased and decreased since then, the number has tended to remain between 4 and 4.5 million. Hulu closed out 2023 and entered 2024 with 4.6 million live TV subscribers.
As of July 2024, Hulu had 4.4 million live TV subscribers.
| As of | Subscribers |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 1,700,000 |
| 2020 | 3,200,000 |
| 2021 | 4,000,000 |
| 2022 | 4,300,000 |
| 2023 | 4,500,000 |
| July 2024 | 4,400,000 |
$77/mo
- 95+ channels
- Basic Hulu
- Disney+
- ESPN+
Philo Subscriber Tracker
Philo is one of the companies that doesn’t provide regular updates on the number of subscribers, making it difficult to draw regular comparisons with other services at any given time.
The last time Philo confirmed the size of its subscriber base was in January 2024. At that time, Philo was delivering live TV to more than one million subscribers.
$28/mo
- 70+ channels
- AMC+
- Unlimited DVR
Save 50% with “DRAGCONLA2024” (1st month)
Sling TV Subscriber Tracker
Sling TV is owned by Dish and updated subscriber data is released each quarter. This routine release of information makes it easy to see how Sling TV is doing over the course of a given year, or years in general.
Sling TV is one of those services that seems to have reached a barrier in terms of new subscribers. While the number of subscribers continuously changes each quarter and year, Sling TV has routinely been hovering between 2 and 2.5 million subscribers since 2018.
Sling TV Subscriber History
Sling TV launched in 2015, and by the start of 2018, was providing live TV to more than 2 million homes. Sling TV hasn’t managed to climb above 3 million since then, but also hasn’t dropped below 2 million either. Sling TV closed out 2023 and entered 2024 with 2.06 million subscribers.
As of July 2024, Sling TV had 2 million subscribers.
| As of | Subscribers |
|---|---|
| 2018 | 2,212,000 |
| 2019 | 2,420,000 |
| 2020 | 2,590,000 |
| 2021 | 2,470,000 |
| 2022 | 2,490,000 |
| 2023 | 2,334,000 |
| July 2024 | 2,000,000 |
$40-55/mo
- 30+ channels
- 1-3 streams
- 50-Hour DVR
Deal: First month only $20.
YouTube TV Subscriber Tracker
YouTube is a little inconsistent in terms of when it releases updated YouTube TV subscriber numbers, so it is never really clear how just many subscribers there are.
With no quarterly figures released, it is also near-impossible to know if and when YouTube TV loses any subscribers. Instead, YouTube tends to release milestone announcements, continuously painting a positive picture of the service.
The last time YouTube provided an official figure, YouTube TV was delivering live TV to more than eight million subscribers, making it the most popular live TV streaming service in the US.
YouTube TV Subscriber History
YouTube TV initially launched in 2017, albeit in a limited state. It wasn’t until 2019 when the service would become available nationwide and, by then, it had already accumulated more than 1 million subscribers. Each year since then, YouTube TV has routinely added more subscribers.
In February of 2024, YouTube TV was confirmed to have more than eight million subscribers.
| As of | Subscribers |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 1,000,000 |
| 2020 | 2,000,000 |
| 2021 | 3,000,000 |
| 2022 | 4,000,000 |
| 2023 | 5,000,000 |
| 2024 | 8,000,000 |
$73/mo
- 100+ channels
- 3 streams
- Unlimited DVR
Deal: Pay $65/mo for first 4 months
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