Image: Suits, USA Network
With the “Suits” franchise now heading to NBC and the West Coast in “Suits LA,” it’s time to take a data-driven look at how the original USA Network series has delivered for its various streaming homes over the years. In dollars and cents, that amounts to more than $300 million in the UCAN region since 2020.
The symbiotic relationship between “Suits” and Netflix has been widely documented, but the numbers reveal just how much of a game-changer the series’ availability on the world’s streaming leader has been for both parties. Since Q1 2020, “Suits” has generated over $800 million in global subscriber revenue across major streamers. The majority of that — over two-thirds — has gone to Netflix, which acquired the rights to stream the series in Q2 2023.
However, Netflix was not the only platform to benefit from the show’s renewed popularity.
When “Suits” hit Netflix, its revenue contribution to Peacock surged as well, highlighting the “halo effect” of increased audience demand across platforms. In Q1 2023, the show contributed $3.4 million in subscriber revenue to Peacock. By Q3 2023, that figure had nearly doubled. Still, this pales in comparison to Netflix’s peak quarter, where “Suits” generated an impressive $53 million in subscriber revenue in Q4 2023. NBCUniversal strategically withheld the final season of “Suits” from Netflix until July 2024, further incentivizing viewership on Peacock and Amazon Prime Video.
What makes “Suits” such a valuable asset? As a long-running procedural with nine seasons and 134 episodes, it offers a highly “recyclable” binge-watching experience, making it one of the most effective subscriber retention titles of the streaming era. With its legacy now extending to new iterations and spin-offs, “Suits” proves that well-structured, high-volume procedural dramas are among the most powerful drivers of revenue in today’s streaming landscape.
It’s still too early to gauge the full impact of “Suits: LA” on Peacock, but demand metrics indicate significant pent-up excitement for the spinoff in the U.S. In the two months leading up to its release, “Suits: LA” ranked as the second most in-demand unreleased TV show in the country for the remainder of the year, trailing only Disney+’s highly anticipated “Daredevil: Born Again.” This underscores the advantages of licensing content to global streaming platforms, where increased exposure can reignite interest in a franchise and create a ripple effect that benefits more localized services like Peacock. As “Suits” continues to thrive across multiple platforms, its expansion into new iterations positions it as a lasting force in the streaming economy.
