With the coronavirus people keeping people indoors and socially distanced, many have turned to TV shows and movies for at-home entertainment.
Digital home entertainment has experienced a noticeable spike, according to The Digital Entertainment Group. The company’s First Quarter 2020 Home Entertainment Report reveals that consumer purchases and rentals of digital movies and TV hit $596 million in March, a 48 percent increase over March 2019’s numbers, making this March the biggest month ever for digital transactions.
But what’s been the most popular content?
Movie and TV streaming search engine Reelgood recently shared behavioral data from more than 4 million monthly users about which movie and TV show genres are most popular right now.
Reelgood tracked which genres saw the biggest gains and losses in streaming share pre-quarantine vs. during quarantine. Animation (21.66 percent), family (16.95 percent) and cult (15.3 percent) content increased their shares, while crime (11.8 percent) and horror (8.38 percent) declined.
Another Reelgood chart details the 10 most popular genres (with 1 being the most popular) before and during quarantine. Drama and action/adventure held on to the top two spots, but a few categories moved up the chart during quarantine, including comedy (from fifth to third), sci-fi (from eighth to sixth) and fantasy (from 10th to ninth). Other genres didn’t fare as well, dropping spots amid the pandemic: Thriller went from third to fourth, mystery from fourth to fifth, crime from sixth to eighth and horror from ninth to 10th.
Based on these two charts, in general, “feel-good” content performed better than darker or more factual content, which led Reelgood to track the top 20 most-watched light TV shows.
The top five spots on this chart were occupied by “Rick and Morty” (12.69 percent), “Feel Good” (6.64 percent), “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” (6.18 percent), “Schitt’s Creek” (6.03 percent) and “Community” (6.02 percent).
Reelgood also tracked the top 20 shows viewed for the first time by the company’s more than 4 million users beginning March 16, when shelter-in-place restrictions were established.
Three shows currently available for streaming on Netflix, including two Netflix original series, took the top three spots. “Ozark” was number one with 8.59 percent, followed by “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness” at 8.47 percent and AMC’s “Breaking Bad” with 8.16 percent.
HBO shows “Game of Thrones” (6.57 percent) and “Westworld” (5.95 percent) took the fourth and fifth spots, respectively.
Meanwhile, for movies, The Digital Entertainment Group has been tracking the “Watched at Home Top 20” each week. Compiled with the most popular titles consumed on disc and digital during the previous week (except for subscription-based streaming), the list showcases the most popular movies among consumers.
For the week ended May 16, DEG’s top five movies (from first to fifth) were “Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn,” “Bloodshot,” “Bad Boys for Life,” “The Call of the Wild” and “Sonic the Hedgehog.”
