The US Streaming App Search Wars: TV streaming owns the sofa, sports gets messy, and half the country has lost the remote
It might surprise you, but generally speaking people don’t wake up thinking, “I must download a video streaming application today.” 🙂
They search for TV streaming, free movies, watch anime, live sports, kids cartoons, Roku remote, screen mirroring, and, occasionally, things so vague that the App Store responds with weather apps, banks and a tower defence game.
That is the real story in US App Store streaming search. It is not one neat market. It is a sofa fight involving TV bundles, anime, short dramas, kids content, sports betting, news apps, remote controls and the occasional banking app wandering into shot.
This analysis looked at a broad set of US App Store streaming-related keywords, covering organic demand, search score and Apple Search Ads auction stacks across streaming, movies, TV, sports, kids, anime, news, free/value-led streaming and device/platform intent. The result is less “streaming category” and more “someone has emptied the entire living room onto the floor”.
SPOILER ALERT: Netflix doesn’t appear to care about winning this space and doesn’t appear anywhere - only their Playground app appears in the kids search results.
Data source: APPlyzer Apple Search Ads auction data, showing auction results from 1-5.
1. TV streaming is the front door
The biggest true streaming-content term in the dataset is “tv streaming”, with 12,209 estimated daily impressions and a search score of 71. Its ASA stack is also unusually clean compared with many other generic streaming terms: Spectrum TV, Telemundo, Philo, Fubo and Paramount+ all appear in the top five.
That matters because “tv streaming” is not just another keyword. It is the main doorway into the category. If you want to understand where streaming intent concentrates in the App Store, start here.
By comparison, broader terms like “streaming”, “streaming services”, “streaming platforms” and “streaming tv apps” are large, but their auctions are far messier. “Streaming” brings in YouTube TV, Chime, Paramount+, AMC+ and RealLive. “Streaming tv apps” includes Paramount+, Remitly, Spectrum TV, MoneyGram and Newsmax. That is not a clean streaming auction. That is a queue outside a cinema where a bank, a remittance app and a news channel have all decided they are invited.
Takeaway: “TV streaming” is the cleanest major battleground. “Streaming” is big, but vague. Vague is where budget goes to disappear politely.
2. Free streaming is huge, but it is not tidy
The standout value-led term is “free streaming”, with 3,795 daily impressions and a search score of 52. Its ASA stack includes PlutoTV, Rotten Tomatoes, Fubo, DramaBox and PBS.
That tells us two things. First, free streaming demand is real. Second, the paid auction is not only made up of services that actually stream free content. Rotten Tomatoes appears regularly across movie and free-streaming terms, while short-drama apps push into value-led movie and TV searches.
The “free” universe gets worse as the user gets more specific. “Free movies offline” returns Crunchyroll, Meowdoku, MONOPOLY Bingo, Pocket7Games and iQIYI. That is no longer a streaming auction. That is an app-store jumble sale with popcorn on the floor.
Takeaway: “Free streaming” is valuable. “Free movies offline” is where intent goes feral.
3. Movies split into five different fights
Movie search is not one market either.
“Movie app” is one of the strongest terms in the dataset, with 3,795 daily impressions and a search score of 52. Its ASA stack includes Fandango, Regal, AMC+, Paramount+ and Crunchyroll.
That is the issue. Searchers may mean:
movie tickets
streaming movies
movie reviews
watchlists
anime
short dramas
free content
The App Store responds by showing all of them. For “free movies”, the ASA stack includes Crunchyroll, Rotten Tomatoes, DramaBox, StardustTV and The Hollywood Gossip. For “movie streaming”, PlutoTV and PBS appear, but so do Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes.
Takeaway: movie intent is commercially rich, but messy. A streaming app bidding here needs very tight creative and very clear ad-message alignment, otherwise it is competing with tickets, reviews, anime and short dramas at the same time.
4. Short-drama apps are barging into the TV aisle
Short dramas are one of the biggest patterns in the dataset.
They appear across:
drama shows
series
tv series
watch series
free movies
free movies and tv shows
free movies streaming
movie streaming apps
For “drama shows”, the top five ASA results are DramaTV, ReelShort, MoboReels, My Drama and GoodShort. For “series”, DramaBox, ViX, NetShort, Scoopz and NewsBreak appear. For “tv series”, GoodShort, NetShort, PlutoTV, DramaBox and iDrama appear.
This is not a niche. Short-drama apps are not politely waiting for users to search “vertical short drama emotional billionaire revenge episode 47”. They are buying mainstream TV and series intent.
Takeaway: short-drama apps are now part of the TV auction landscape. Any streaming brand ignoring them is probably underestimating the competition.
5. Sports streaming has been hijacked by betting and prediction apps
Sports is where the App Store auction starts wearing a fake moustache.
Across sports terms, legitimate streaming and sports-content apps do appear: Fubo, Paramount+, CBS Sports, B1G+, WNBA, GameChanger and Recapp are all present. But the paid stacks are repeatedly invaded by Polymarket, Kalshi, Fanatics Sportsbook, OG: Predict Everything, Action Network and casino-style apps.
Examples:
“sports streaming”: Polymarket, Paramount+, Recapp, Fanatics Sportsbook, OG.
“nfl streaming”: Polymarket, Fubo, Fanatics Sportsbook, OG, Kalshi.
“ufc live”: Fanatics Sportsbook, Paramount+, Kalshi, Polymarket, Cider Casino.
“sports tv”: Fanatics Sportsbook, Fubo, OG, STN Sports and Race, Kalshi.
The intent may be “watch the match”. The auction often hears “place a bet, make a prediction, possibly open a casino”. Lovely.
Takeaway: sports streaming search is commercially hot, but paid competition is not just streamers. It is sport, betting, predictions, scores and casino-style acquisition all in the same scrum.
6. Anime is the cleanest kingdom
Anime is refreshingly straightforward compared with the rest of the dataset.
Crunchyroll appears as P1 across the core anime terms:
anime
anime shows
anime streaming
watch anime
anime movies
free anime streaming
anime tv
manga anime
The broader term “anime” has 1,604 daily impressions and a search score of 38, while “anime shows” has 1,334 daily impressions and a search score of 35.
There is still some noise. Anime attracts games, manga, AI and shopping apps at the edges. But compared with sports, free movies or generic streaming, this is a much clearer dominance story.
Takeaway: Crunchyroll owns the anime front door. Everyone else is fighting for side doors, windows and the occasional manga-shaped cat flap.
7. Kids search is clean when specific, bizarre when broad
Kids/family terms split into two groups.
Specific terms such as “kids tv”, “kids videos”, “nursery rhymes”, “kids cartoons” and “cartoons for kids” return mostly relevant kids, learning and family-safe content apps.
Broad terms do not behave so well.
“Cartoons” has 2,052 daily impressions and a search score of 42, but the ASA stack includes PBS KIDS Video, Autotrader, an AI cartoon generator, an AI video generator and Mochii: AI Pet Companion.
A parent searches for cartoons. The App Store offers PBS Kids, a used car and an AI pet. Which is certainly a funnel. Not necessarily a good one.
Takeaway: target specific kids content terms. Treat broad “cartoons” as high volume but high chaos.
8. News is cleaner than sports, but “live events” is a trapdoor
News/live terms are relatively coherent. “tv news” has 2,052 daily impressions and a search score of 42, with NewsBreak, Newsmax, Haystack, Washington Post and CNN Weather in the ASA stack. “Breaking news”, “weather news”, “local news” and “live news” also show largely relevant news apps.
But “live events” is not a streaming-news term. It returns Mistplay, Kalshi, TickPick, Meetup and BIGO LIVE.
Takeaway: news streaming has usable pockets. “Live events” should come with a warning label and possibly a helmet.
9. The biggest “streaming” searches are not streaming searches
The device/platform bucket is enormous.
Top device terms include:
These are not content searches. They are control, casting and utility searches. “Roku remote”, “tv remote” and “universal remote” are larger than almost every true streaming-content term apart from “tv streaming”.
That is the punchline: a huge slice of the US “streaming” search universe is not people asking what to watch. It is people asking how to make the thing on the wall obey them.
Takeaway: platform and utility intent should be separated from streaming-content intent. Otherwise you end up comparing Paramount+ with a universal remote app and wondering why the strategy looks haunted.
Our final verdict…
US App Store streaming search is not one market. It is a stack of overlapping intent layers:
TV streaming is the biggest clean streaming doorway.
Free streaming is big, but messy.
Movies split between streaming, tickets, reviews, anime and short dramas.
Sports is heavily invaded by betting and prediction apps.
Anime is the cleanest dominance story, with Crunchyroll on the throne.
Kids works when specific, but broad cartoons goes off-road.
News is usable, though live events is a trap.
Device/platform intent is enormous, but mostly not content-streaming intent.
So no, the streaming App Store is not a tidy shelf of Netflix-like apps. It is a living room argument. The TV wants a subscription, the sports fan wants a stream, the kid wants cartoons, the anime fan already knows where they are going, the bettor has arrived uninvited, and someone, somewhere, is still shouting:
“Where is the bloody remote?” 😂
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If you have an app in the streaming market it can be tough to dominate, but we’ve worked with both global brands and niche players in this space from Rakuten to Paramount and know how to drive sustainable growth. We’d love to talk to you so please reach out to us today and one of our team will line up a call!