While many businesses struggled due to stay-at-home orders, streaming sites were among the businesses that saw an uptick in sales. For example, Netflix added 36 million new subscribers in 2020 with almost 16 million subscribers in the first three months of 2020 alone. However, this growth slowed in 2021 when Netflix gained 18.2 million subscribers, showing just how much the pandemic inflated 2020 numbers.

Disney+ was another big winner, despite having only launched in November 2019. Since then, it has amassed over 116 million subscribers worldwide, making it more popular than the likes of Paramount Plus (47 million subscribers combined with other ViacomCBS streaming services) and Hulu (43.8 million subscribers) combined.