South Africans streamed plenty in 2020 on Showmax

At the start of the national COVID lockdown in March, South Africans were suddenly confined to their homes, which had a dramatic impact on viewers choosing to stream entertainment on Showmax. Here are some interesting insights we uncovered:

Big increase in lockdown streaming 

In South Africa, there was a 50% spike in active users and a doubling in play events during the strictest lockdown period across all categories – international series and movies as well as local movies, series, and kids’ content. Showmax is the place to stream critically acclaimed HBO series in Africa, with classics like Game of Thrones and Girls proving popular in addition to growing interest in recently launched titles like The Undoing, The Third Day and Industry.  

Movie night every night 

At the start of lockdown, there was a big increase in people watching movies during the week. Ordinarily, movies tend to be more popular over weekends when people are at home. Popular titles include After (2019), Anna (2019), Hustlers (2019), John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019) and The Invisible Man (2020). 

Kids streaming 

More families turned to Showmax to keep the kids entertained and we saw a large increase in people utilising our kid-friendly catalogue with hits like Paw Patrol, UglyDolls, Henry Danger and Victorious remaining favourites.  

South African stories 

When it comes to South African content, views continue to grow strongly even as lockdown has relaxed. We saw some of our biggest lockdown spikes in views of South African titles this year, including Showmax Originals Life With Kelly Khumalo and Somizi & Mohale: The Union as well as The River, The Queen, Legacy, Gomora, Lockdown, The Recce and Frank & Fearless.  

Sport spikes on key matches 

Now that live sport is gradually opening up around the world, we see regular spikes in subscribers tuning in to live stream their favourite football teams on Showmax Pro, which launched this year in South Africa. All Premier League, Serie A, La Liga, and DStv Premiership games are available to stream on Showmax Pro, brought to you by SuperSport. 

18 of the most–binged series on Showmax  

Wondering what other South Africans have been binge-watching this year? In alphabetical order, here are some of the most-binged titles, based on the highest completion rate and total number of viewers, in the last six months. If these aren’t on your watchlist yet, they’ll make for ideal holiday viewing.   

• Banshee  
• Brooklyn Nine-Nine  
• Game of Thrones  
• House 
• Insecure 
• Lockdown 
• Madam & Mercy 
• Ray Donovan 
• Rick and Morty 
• Sex and the City  
• Suits 
• The Handmaid’s Tale  
• True Blood  
• Younger