HBO and HBO Max added 13 million subscribers last year, as Netflix’s growth slowed

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Not every streamer is experiencing the kind of subscriber decline that was reported byNetflix in its earnings results this week. Even though AT&T has sold WarnerMedia to Discovery, it still has one more set of subscriber numbers to reveal.

In the last quarter of last year, three million new subscribers were added to the traditional and Max versions of HBO. The combined services have 76.8 million subscribers, which is more than any other service, including the most recent Disney Plus count of 129.8 million. In January, we noted that HBO Max was doing great.

AT&T Q1 2022.

At the end of the quarter, there were 76.8 million global HBO Max and HBO subscribers. Global HBO Max and HBO subscribers increased 12.8 million year over year and were up 3.0 million sequentially, primarily driven by international as well as domestic retail subscriber gains reflecting strength of the programming slate. At the end of the quarter, there were 48.6 million domestic HBO Max and HBO subscribers versus 44.2 million in the year-ago quarter, up 4.4 million year over year.

We have come to the end of the strategy of day-and-date movie premieres that ran through the 2021, but it still has a strong library of content. It could be a while before they run into the problem of not having any more new customers to find, as they have a number of new territories where they are expanding.

AT&T CEO John Stankey said that password sharing was an issue that was stalling its growth. Stanke said on the investor call that they were thoughtful about how they built the product and that they didn't want to see rampant abuse.