Image: Outlander, Starz
It is a tight race between Netflix’s “Bridgerton” and Starz’s “Outlander” in the battle to be the most valuable period romance of the streaming era. Since “Bridgerton” premiered on Netflix at the end of 2020, these two shows have been closely matched in terms of how much streaming revenue they have delivered for platforms around the world according to Parrot Analytics’ Streaming Economics model.
“Outlander” has been a steady performer, delivering a consistent stream of reliable subscriber revenue for platforms where it is available, despite notoriously long gaps of time between seasons (“Droughtlander”). While “Bridgerton” got a later start, it has generated large amounts of subscriber revenue in bursts around new season releases, consistent with Netflix’s binge release strategy. Notably, as a Netflix original, every dollar of subscriber revenue generated by “Bridgerton” has contributed to Netflix’s top line whereas “Outlander” has been available on multiple platforms at different times around the world, allowing many different companies to cash in on the popularity of this series from STARZ.
There is not yet another period romance that comes close to delivering the amount of streaming value that these two shows have over the past 5 years. As of Q3 2024, “When Calls the Heart” has come the closest, generating $179M in subscriber revenue on major platforms globally. This is still only a fraction of the $1.4B that “Bridgerton” and “Outlander” have collectively delivered for streaming platforms in the same time. “Queen Charlotte” ranks fourth among most valuable period romances having made $105M for Netflix as of Q3 2024, showing how the growing franchise has not only been successful at expanding with new audiences but also bringing in more subscriber dollars.
Digging into how “Outlander” has specifically driven subscriber revenue for Netflix we can see that it has been a major retention tool for the streamer, keeping audiences sticking around and engaged with other content on-platform. “Outlander” has been responsible for over half a billion dollars of global streaming revenue for Netflix from 2020 through 2024. The vast majority of this revenue (95.1%) has been due to the show’s ability to retain subscribers.
Contrast this with “Bridgerton”, which is relatively more effective at acquiring new subscribers. 5.4% of the revenue generated by “Bridgerton” to date has been due to new subscriber sign-ups. This show has been successful at attracting new subscribers to the platform because it is a Netflix original, exclusively available on the platform, as well as a buzzy cultural phenomenon that has proven to be a must-watch around new season releases.
