Netflix subscribers worldwide

Netflix subscribers worldwide and US video game industry revenue tracked each other at 0.97 between 2012 and 2023, which is either evidence of a grand entertainment industry conspiracy or simply proof that Americans, given sufficient bandwidth and comfortable seating, will consume as much digital entertainment as the infrastructure will support. Both industries learned during the 2010s that the key to growth was not better content but better delivery mechanisms, and then discovered simultaneously in the early 2020s that growth has a ceiling, which is the number of hours in a day.

Netflix subscribers grew from 33 million in 2012 to over 260 million by 2023, while US video game revenue grew from roughly $20 billion to over $57 billion in the same period, driven by mobile gaming, in-game purchases, and subscription models like Game Pass. Both industries benefited from the same technological and behavioral trends: improved internet infrastructure, the normalization of digital entertainment spending, and the shift from physical to digital distribution. The industries are mildly competitive for the same leisure hours, but both grew because the overall pool of time and money Americans spent on digital entertainment expanded substantially across this period.

Two industries competing for the same leisure hours can still grow together if the total pool of entertainment spending is expanding. Their correlation describes prosperity, not partnership.