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Presented below is the section for the United States from The Global Television Demand Report. Enjoy!

United States digital original genre and subgenre preferences

• At 34.7%, the USA has by far the lowest demand share for drama originals in the report. It is the only market where this genre captures less than 40% of demand.
• Of all the markets in this report, the demand share is highest in the USA for digital original series in five genres. These are animation (6.0%), children (8.0%), comedy (18.7%), documentary (9.0%), & reality (6.0%).
• The documentary (9.0%) and reality (6.0%) genres saw the largest growth in demand share in 2019, up from 4.1% and 3.6% share last year respectively. The US was the only market in this report where the action/adventure genre lost demand share in 2020. Its demand share decreased by -1.2% from 2019.

• American audiences’ interest in comedy is apparent here. Both the sitcom and comedy drama subgenre ranked more highly here than in any of the markets in this report.
• The USA’s most in-demand subgenre of 2020 is sci-fi drama. This subgenre was also the most in-demand subgenre in the US in 2019.
• The United States is the only market in the report where two children’s subgenres are among the ten most in-demand. Cartoon and children’s (school age) were the 7th and 8th most in-demand subgenres in 2020. Each moved up two places from its 2019 rank.

United States platform demand share and digital originals demand distribution

• Netflix titles accounted for 50.5% of demand for all digital original titles in the United States in 2020. This represents a -7.3% decline compared to its annual share of demand in 2019.
• Both Apple TV+ and Disney+ grew their demand shares in the USA since launching in November 2019, reaching 4.4% and 5.4% demand share respectively for 2020.
• Amazon Prime Video and Hulu have maintained their demand shares relatively well in the face of rising competition from new entrants. The demand share of each decreased by less than -1% compared to last year.

• The most in-demand digital original series in the United States for 2020 is Disney+’s The Mandalorian. It was 55.1 times more in-demand than the average title in the US, making it one of the 0.2% of titles that are classed as Exceptional.
• Despite last releasing episodes in July 2019, Stranger Things was the second most in-demand digital original in the US for 2020. It averaged 41.8 times the demand of the average series, a testament to the lasting popularity of this Netflix original.
• Defending Jacob was 10.7 times more in-demand than the average series. This was Apple TV+’s most popular original series in the US for 2020.

United States platform demand share for drama and action/adventure digital originals

• With 55.4% demand share for digital original drama titles, Netflix accounts for a majority of demand expressed in this category. This is a larger YoY decrease in demand share than Netflix saw from 2018 to 2019, indicating an acceleration of the loss of its dominant position in the drama genre.
• Hulu was able to slightly grow its US demand share for digital original dramas in the face of increasing competition. It is up from its 10.3% demand share last year.
• In the year following its launch, Apple TV+ has carved out a respectable share of demand for drama digital originals with a 6.8% share of demand in the US.

• In 2020 the action/adventure genre has become even more fragmented. While 2019 looked like a two-way contest between Netflix and DC Universe, this year four platforms each have a greater than 10% demand share.
• Disney+ has the second highest demand share of original action/adventure series. Its 18.6% share in 2020 is largely due to the dominance of The Mandalorian. With multiple Marvel and Star Wars series on the horizon it looks to continue its growth in this genre.
• Following the winding down of DC Universe’s streaming operations, HBO Max became the home of the popular DC superhero series. Picking up these highly in-demand shows and making them HBO Max originals was a smart move that allowed the platform to have a strong launch this year.

Top digital original series in the United States

Here are the top 20 most in-demand streaming original series in 2020 across all platforms:

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