Was HBO Max's Rebrand Worth It? A Look at Revenue Before and After
This is a single insight from This Week in Apps - Subscriptions Much?. Check out the full article for more insights.
A few months ago HBO Max, one of the highest-grossing app in the US, rebranded into Max. But this wasn't a simple name change - Max is a new app that's only available in the US while HBO Max is still available outside of the US.
Oh, Max also got discovery+'s catalog of shows.
But here's the question - did the rebrand help or hurt the streamer?
Looking at the app's mobile revenue before and after the rebrand the answer is...
The simple answer is that it doesn't look like it.
This year has been pretty positive for HBO Max. So far in 2023, HBO Max (pre rebrand) averaged $2.3M in daily net revenue. Yes, daily! That was before the rebrand.
Once HBO Max turned into Max, the old app was removed from the App Store and Google Play in the US. Non US revenue is now all that's left and it's at around a 10th of the total from earlier in the year.
Brazil, Mexico, and Spain are the top markets by revenue, and there, revenue remained fairly consistent. Which makes sense - nothing happened there.
In the US, revenue dropped a visible amount. Although it didn't happen right away, revenue has been on the decline for a few weeks now.
Our estimates show that Max averages $1.9M/day, and the trend isn't pointing up. At all.
This revenue "leak" is a reminder that content is still king, and HBO hasn't had any real blockbusters recently. Combine that with the return to movie theaters and you can see Max needs to do more to expand its offering, and discovery+ content isn't "it".
App Intelligence for Everyone!
The insights in this report come right out of our App Intelligence platform, which offers access to download and revenue estimates, installed SDKs, and more! Learn more about the tools or schedule a demo with our team to get started.
Are you a Journalist? You can get access to our app and market intelligence for free through the Appfigures for Journalists program. Contact us for more details.
All figures included in this report are estimated. Unless specified otherwise, estimated revenue is always net, meaning it's the amount the developer earned after Apple and Google took their fee.
