Cancellation Traffic on Max Surges 598% After End of Succession and Transition From HBO Max

On May 23, 2023, HBO Max rebranded to Max, unifying the HBO Max and Discovery+ streaming services under one brand. The decision to discard the venerable HBO brand puzzled many observers, resulting in confusion among subscribers as they discovered TV and mobile apps were no longer functional.

The conclusion of tentpole titles Succession on May 28th seems to have been one factor spurring an exodus, resulting in a 598% surge in confirmed cancellations over the course of a week, according to Similarweb estimates.

Key takeaways 

• The rebranding and Succession exodus: Max.com’s cancellation traffic rose 598% week over week (May 24th – May 30th vs May 17th – May 23rd) to over 46,474 visits after the rebrand on May 23rd and the end of Succession on May 28th. 
• Discovery+ loses subscribers to the bundle: Discovery+’s cancellation traffic spiked 42.3% month over month and 566.7% year over year in May 2023 amidst the consolidation of the 2 platforms. Meanwhile, the platform’s subscriber traffic has seen large year-over-year declines in month traffic this year, decreasing -40.21% YoY in May 2023. 
• Technical issues overshadowed the transition: In the aftermath of the transition, Max.com’s help center gained 11.28 million visits in May ‘23 while HBO’s help center saw 6.073 million visits. This marked the highest volume of help center traffic in the platform’s history, with visits up 209.6% month over month compared to April ‘23 and visits up 144.4% year over year compared to May ‘22. 
• Millions flock to see the new platform: Max.com traffic reached 103.4 million unique visitors in May 2023, surpassing Netflix’s 51.65 million visitors and Hulu’s 33.61 million unique visitors.

Unprecedented cancellation traffic surge 

According to Similarweb data, Max.com saw a 598.4% increase in cancellation traffic from May 24 to May 30 compared to the previous week.

Cancellation traffic surged 75.8% on May 28th compared to the previous day, marking the end of Succession. The trend continued into the following days with another 65.8% increase in cancellation traffic on May 29th compared to the previous day.

Despite these changes going into effect towards the end of May, they made a dent in the bigger picture.

Cancellation traffic jumped over 468.4% year over year in May 2023 

Max.com saw 59,761 cancellation visits in May in addition to Hbomax.com’s 24,585 cancellation visits. Max.com’s cancellation traffic alone was 70.2% higher than Hbomax.com’s in April. When taking both platforms into account, this marked a 140.2% month-over-month increase and a 468.4% year-over-year increase in cancellation traffic.

The increase in cancellation traffic coincided with the end of the popular HBO series Succession on May 28. This trend may prove the necessity of an extended-release content model to maintain long-term engagement and member retention. In other words, we suspect Max needs more must-see programming to keep subscribers from canceling. That may prove hard to come by if the platform continues to be impacted by the industry-wide writer’s strike.

Discovery+ loses subscribers to bundle

Cancellation traffic on Discovery+ spiked by 42.3% month over month and a massive 566.7% year over year in May 2023. This increase is likely due to the consolidation of the two platforms and ongoing content issues. While Discovery+ will continue to have its own separate offering, some users subscribed to both platforms may have decided to cancel Discovery+ in favor of the bundle.

Technical issues overshadow the transition

Technical issues following the transition to Max resulted in a surge in traffic to the HBO Max and Max help centers. Some subscribers reported difficulties when trying to convert their subscriptions, and there were also reports of errors and delays. According to Similarweb data, the help center saw a 209.6% month-over-month increase in traffic and a 144.4% year-over-year increase in traffic in May 2023.

However, Warner Bros. Discovery has downplayed these issues, stating that they were minor and have since been resolved. But the change left more than 17 million subscribers looking for help on one of the two support sites.

The future of streaming: one-size-fits-all and bundles

The streaming industry is witnessing a shift towards all-in-one platforms that cater to the entire family, as consumers seek convenience and cost-effectiveness. To better compete with market leaders like Netflix and Amazon Prime, companies such as Warner Bros. Discovery are consolidating their services. Warner Bros. Discovery thought combining HBO, Discovery+, and other services into Max would make them more competitive with Disney+ and others – even as Disney+ is consolidating with Hulu.

But Max is off to a rough start.

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Report By: Sneha Pandey, Insights Manager

Methodology

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