đ The State of Niche Streamers in 2025
Today we do a breakdown of the various "niche" streaming services analyzing their subscriber totals, viewership metrics and outlook on the financials.
Welcome to StreamScoop! This week, weâre checking in on niche streaming services across the industryâlooking at their reported subscriber counts, viewership data, and an outlook on their finances.
The pattern in which media companies self-report metrics is quite simple: IF the service touts some data, they likely believe the content a hit, while radio silence is normally the sign of the opposite. Even when companies do self-report their metrics, they always run the risk of seeming to inflate their success, as data from Nielsen or Luminate may reveal either a smaller base audience or a consistent decline in interest.
That being said, most companies have shifted from transparency to obscurity when it comes to their viewership metrics. Itâs becoming increasingly difficult to find streaming data as the subscription-based business model builds towards a potential collapse.
In a world where every user has unique interests, the opportunities for ânicheâ streaming services have arisen. However, in 2025, users are increasingly unwilling to pay for a slew of services, exploring more bundling options or a few different free options.
Furthermore, the churn rate for the streaming industry is at an all-time high, with users gravitating toward Free Ad-Supported Television services (FASTs) and focusing on only the major platforms. In a world where media production and server maintenance grow increasingly expensive, the financials become more and more infeasible.
That said, I want to take a closer look at several niche streaming servicesâexamining their subscriber and viewership metrics, along with the financial health of their parent companies.
AMC+
AMC+ is a streaming service owned by AMC Networks(not the theater chain), launched in 2020. The service features new original series and live-channel feeds, allowing users to view content upon release.
Subscribers: About 3 months ago Variety reported on the status of AMC+ and its other streaming subsidiaries.
âIn the first quarter, we updated our streaming subscriber definition to only include subscribers who register on an a la carte basis and from whom we receive a fee for one of our streaming services, directly through our direct-to- consumer (DTC) applications or indirectly through one of our streaming platform arrangements. This definitional change resulted in the exclusion of subscribers from our count who received access to our streaming services from distributors through a video package that also included access to our programming networks,â said AMC.
Under the new measurement process, AMC reported having 10.2 million subscribers, across all of their platforms including Acorn TV, ALLBLK, HIDIVE, Shudder, and Sundance Now. According to financial reports this was a decline of about 200 thousand subscribers from the end of 2024.
Viewership: AMC hasnât done terrible in viewership, but its success doesnât extend far beyond the Walking Dead universe.
Back in 2022, they self-reported that âThe Walking Deadâ finale was the most-watched single-episode in service history, averaging 3.1 million viewers in its first 3 days.
In 2024, AMC self-reported that âThe Walking Dead: The Ones Who Liveâ set all-time records for both viewership and customer acquisition for AMC+, earning early 3 million premiere night viewers.
In March 2025, the network reported 2.2 million viewers for the Season 3 premiere of âDark Winds,â with a 50% viewership increase from Season 2.
In early July 2025, Deadline reported that âNautilus,â had earned the services most-watched premiere TWD: The Ones Who Live, with 2.6 million viewers in its first 3 days.
Finances: According to their Q1 2025 report, âAffiliate revenues declined 12% to $156 million primarily due to basic subscriber declines, and to a lesser extent, contractual rate decreases in connection with renewals.â
Also we see that AMC Networksâ broadcast ad sales were down 15% to $119 million amid declining cable ratings, with domestic revenue down 7% from Q1 2024.
Crunchyroll
Crunchyroll was the first âmajorâ niche streaming service, and today holds a strong international presence. For anime-fans itâs a must-have with a huge collection of series and occasional original projects. The service was purchased by Sony Pictures for $1.2 billion.
Subscribers: The anime-specific service has crossed over 17 million paid subscribers, according to a Deadline report from May 2025. The service does include a free and paid-subscription. Crunchyroll self-reported having more than 120 million total subscribers on their service back in 2021(likely higher now).
Viewership: The company has limited viewership metrics available.
In mid-June 2025, it was reported that the series âSolo Levelingâ became the most-viewed series in Crunchyroll history. It also earned the title of Crunchyrollâs highest-rated anime, boasting a 4.9/5 average from over 610,000 user reviews.
Finances: According to an AppMagic report, net revenue from its streaming app increased from $211 million to $282 million between April 2022-March 2023 and April 2023-March 2024.
Dailywire+
Dailywire+ is the streaming arm of its namesake, a right-leaning media outlet. The parent company actually launched two services Bentkey, a childrenâs streaming service and Dailywire+, a DTC service for their news programming.
Subscribers: The reporting on this service is fairly scarce, but according to an Axios article from back in December 2024, Dailywire+ has âwell over 1 million subscribers.â This likely places them in the 1â1.75 million range, short of the 2 million mark.
Viewership: Outside of Facebook and YouTube video views, there isnât a single metric out there on the Dailywire+âs viewership.
Finances: The service was reportedly on track to surpass $200 million in revenue in 2024, following a big year of growth across advertising and e-commerce.
FOX Nation
As FOX pushes forward with their all-in-one DTC service FOX One, it seems that FOX Nation is positioned to be an add-on. Iâm sure at the end of the day these services will be consolidated, as conglomerates want as much time spent on a service from consumers.
Subscribers: Variety reports that in an investor conference, the Fox CEO denoted that FOX Nation had between 2 million and 2.5 million subscribers.
Viewership: There have never been any reported metrics as it relates to FOX Nation. However, FOX broadcasting channels have seen a great year, which in turn has driven their revenues.
Finances: FOX reportedly outgrossed analyst expectations, with a 17% revenue increase from 2024. FOX reported a revenue of $16.3 billion, up substantial increase in comparison to last yearâs Quarter 2 report.
Expect for the companyâs finances to tighten next year as they begin to pump resources into the foundation of FOX One.
Hallmark+
Hallmark is absolutely an acquired-taste, but for dedicated fans of sappy rom-com movies and series, THE go-to network. The network launched Hallmark Movies Now a few years ago and it has officially rebranded as Hallmark+ earlier this year.
Subscribers: Hallmark Movies Now reportedly had around 1.5 million subscribers ahead of the re-brand.
Viewership: A metric for Hallmark+ specifically has never been reported.
Finances: Hallmark has done pretty well financially as a go-to entertainment network for many consumers. An Ivey report showcased massive advertising revenue sitting at $600 million in 2022, with an estimate of over $70 million annual revenue from their streaming platform alone. Hallmark is a private company so exact figures are hard to come by.
STARZ
Subscribers: STARZ reported 12.3 million subscribers across Canada and the U.S., with worldwide DTC subscriptions hitting 18 million. Including the cable network the company logged a little over 21 million subscribers. The company did see subscriber losses in the U.S.
Viewership: In all of my Nielsen data starting in 2023 and all the way up to early July of 2025(the latest report), STARZ only appears on the Top Ten data once⌠as one of the two viewing options for the series âBlack Sails,â whose viewership was undoubtedly mostly on Netflix.
In early 2022, âPower Book IV: Forceâ earned 3.3 million cross-platform viewers, also reporting the showâs on-air premiere drew 648,000 viewers.
According to a report in June of 2022, the season 2 premiere of âP-Valleyâ earned 4.5 million viewers across platforms in the U.S. in its first 3 days, with the âbulkâ of viewers on the STARZ app.
In June of 2024, Deadline reported that âPower Book II: Ghostâ season 4 drew 6.5 million multi-platform viewers in their first week.
In September of 2024, it was reported that âPower Book II: Ghostâ had set all-time ratings record for the platform. The series was averaging 10.5 million viewers across all platforms. STARZ also reported that subscribers watched 1.6 billion hours of the âPowerâ universe.
Finances: STARZ reported total revenue of $330.6 million and operating loss of $136.3 million in Q4 of 2024, including a restructuring charge of $177.4 million, primarily related to a strategic reassessment of the company's content portfolio.
Some of these streaming services are doing fairly well, but Iâm concerned that theyâre not equipped to survive the black hole that is the subscription-based business model in streaming.
Anyone who follows me on X knows that I think this model isnât sustainable. Consumers wonât pay for 10+ services, and ultimately, these media conglomerates are not making as much revenue as they did under the broadcast and cable models.
Regardless, streaming viewership metrics are going to be extremely valuable in the future, especially as companies like Netflix and Disney+ announce they will no longer report first-party data.
Even so, the bigger question is whether itâs financially sustainable for these niche services to continue investing millions in content production, distribution, and server maintenanceâespecially when many report just one viewership metric a year, if any at all.
Thanks for reading! Make sure to tune in later this week for our weekly collection of viewership metrics called Data Dump!
whats even on dailywire+?
I think Duck Dynasty has a little spinoff show on FOX Nation