(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what\u2019s popular in streaming TV and what isn\u2019t. I\u2019m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, <\/span>please subscribe<\/a> to get these insights each week.)<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/h5>\nAn article on video games by Georg Zoller recently caught my eye. Titled \u201c<\/span>The Video Game Industries Very Dark Night<\/a>\u201d, I just had to share it because the situation it describes in the introduction might apply to film and entertainment.<\/span><\/p>\nZoller runs through a series of hype cycles in video games over the last few years, including:<\/p>\n
And now\u2026AI. The video game bubble inflated due to overhyped expectations for these various trends. And now growth has stalled out. Zoller also adda that the video game industry also faces challenges from both consolidation and Big Tech platforms extracting revenue. Could I make a similar list for entertainment? Probably, and I should!<\/p>\n
Either way, this mini-history lesson (again, <\/span>check it out<\/a>) is clear: exaggeration isn\u2019t helpful; thoughtful, skeptical analysis is. Be wary of hype!<\/span><\/p>\nOkay, on to today\u2019s article, where I\u2019m talking about Netflix\u2019s big new movie starring Charlize Theron, <\/span>Apex<\/em>, and their big new returning show, <\/span>Running Point<\/em>, starring Kate Hudson<\/span>. <\/em>Did both titles disappoint? All that, plus I\u2019m also looking at a bio-docu-series about arguably the biggest wrestler of all time, a bunch of shows falling off the charts, a second season record (yeah, it\u2019s <\/span>The Pitt<\/em>), video game budgets and mobile devices globally, a big franchise failing to launch a spinoff, all the flops, bombs and misses, and a whole lot more.<\/span><\/p>\nLet\u2019s dive right in!<\/p>\n
(Reminder: The streaming ratings report focuses on the U.S. market and compiles data from Nielsen\u2019s weekly <\/span>top ten viewership ranks<\/a>, Luminate\u2019s Top Ten Data, <\/span>Showlabs<\/a>, <\/span>TV Time<\/a> trend data, Samba TV household viewership, company <\/span>datecdotes<\/a>, Netflix hours viewed data, Google Trends, and IMDb to determine the most popular content. While most data points are current, Nielsen\u2019s data covers the weeks of April 20th to April 26th, 2026.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n
Zoller runs through a series of hype cycles in video games over the last few years, including:<\/p>\n
And now\u2026AI. The video game bubble inflated due to overhyped expectations for these various trends. And now growth has stalled out. Zoller also adda that the video game industry also faces challenges from both consolidation and Big Tech platforms extracting revenue. Could I make a similar list for entertainment? Probably, and I should!<\/p>\n
Either way, this mini-history lesson (again, <\/span>check it out<\/a>) is clear: exaggeration isn\u2019t helpful; thoughtful, skeptical analysis is. Be wary of hype!<\/span><\/p>\n Okay, on to today\u2019s article, where I\u2019m talking about Netflix\u2019s big new movie starring Charlize Theron, <\/span>Apex<\/em>, and their big new returning show, <\/span>Running Point<\/em>, starring Kate Hudson<\/span>. <\/em>Did both titles disappoint? All that, plus I\u2019m also looking at a bio-docu-series about arguably the biggest wrestler of all time, a bunch of shows falling off the charts, a second season record (yeah, it\u2019s <\/span>The Pitt<\/em>), video game budgets and mobile devices globally, a big franchise failing to launch a spinoff, all the flops, bombs and misses, and a whole lot more.<\/span><\/p>\n Let\u2019s dive right in!<\/p>\n (Reminder: The streaming ratings report focuses on the U.S. market and compiles data from Nielsen\u2019s weekly <\/span>top ten viewership ranks<\/a>, Luminate\u2019s Top Ten Data, <\/span>Showlabs<\/a>, <\/span>TV Time<\/a> trend data, Samba TV household viewership, company <\/span>datecdotes<\/a>, Netflix hours viewed data, Google Trends, and IMDb to determine the most popular content. While most data points are current, Nielsen\u2019s data covers the weeks of April 20th to April 26th, 2026.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n
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