With nearly a dozen blockbuster options on the forefront, most will be forced to choose

Just a few years ago, Netflix was the dominant streaming service, along with the title of being the only “essential” service to have. Between buzzing original content including “Stranger Things” and “The Crown” and licensed blockbuster movies and television shows, Netflix had everything the average viewer needed at an efficient cost.

Over the past few years, however, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu have prepared their arsenal for an impressive catalog that can also entice a significant number of viewers. With each having its unique benefits, such as Prime Video being included in an Amazon membership, the decision of which streaming services to invest in became slightly more challenging.

With millions of dollars being invested into rising services such as Disney+ and HBO Max, that decision is becoming even more challenging. Many have resorted to cutting the cord to avoid the prices of cable, yet that may have proved pointless if a handful of streaming services costs more than cable did in the first place. This raises the question: Which services should be invested in?

The most well-known service, Netflix, has yet to fail in a sense. They continue to offer thousands of movies and television shows across dozens of categories at a costly rate, despite their prices continuing to slowly rise over the years. While they haven’t released much original content as of late, that is sure to change once filming can resume as we near the end of the pandemic.

Recently, Netflix released a promotional advertisement and press statement that promised to release big-budget films and shows every week through the end of 2021. If that promise is kept, viewers should be in for a treat over the coming months.

As millions of dollars are invested into the other services to offer up some form of competition, it’s worth keeping an eye out for what entices each viewer. HBO Max has recently advertised “same-day viewing” in which blockbuster films are released on the platform during the film’s theatrical release window.

Hulu has continued to advertise next-day television viewing, as well as exclusive content from popular cable channel FX. With money being invested at an exponential rate to score big-name content, viewers would be smart to select the streaming services of their choice based on their original content and what they have to offer exclusively, due to licensing rights to non-original content changing over time.

While we’ve seen these brands invest a significant amount of funds into their services, this may only be the tip of the iceberg. The efficiency of at-home viewing, combined with the threat of the pandemic, has fueled the interest in streaming services. We may see dozens of more services come forth in the coming years, which urges consumers more than ever to select the handful of their preference from the ever-growing list.