Streaming service subscriptions

Amazon's annual revenue and global streaming service subscriptions grew together between 2007 and 2022 at r = 0.9662, a correlation that is, unusually for this dataset, not entirely spurious—Amazon literally runs one of the streaming services. This is the rare case where a correlation on a spurious correlations website has accidentally stumbled upon an actual partial relationship, like a drunk person walking into the correct building. Amazon Prime Video is a component of both numbers, which makes this less of a coincidence and more of a tautology wearing a trench coat. The data did not do this on purpose.

Amazon's revenue grew from roughly $15 billion in 2007 to over $500 billion by 2022, with Amazon Prime—including Prime Video—becoming a major driver of customer retention and revenue. Global streaming subscriptions grew from negligible in 2007 to over 1.5 billion by 2022, driven by Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, and others. The correlation is partially genuine: Amazon Prime Video subscribers are counted in both metrics, and Amazon's overall growth was fueled by the same digital infrastructure and consumer behavior shifts that enabled streaming. This is a case where the spurious label is slightly unfair.

Occasionally, a spurious correlation contains a real relationship hiding in plain sight. When one variable is literally a component of the other, the correlation is less a statistical coincidence and more an accounting identity that forgot to declare itself.