Do streaming audiences prefer older or current content?

People like the old sheet better than the new sheet! Shocker. The old stuff is better!

I decided to pull down some data. Streaming has been sucking eyeballs away from theaters for a long time. The pandemic didn't help. There's so much great old content available on platforms, the generally crappy new stuff doesn't stand a chance. Do I want to see another Marvel Comics retread?

Hollywood may be having its best year since before the pandemic, but streaming audiences are still obsessed with old content

Chart R

Even though DC’s “Supergirl” marked another disappointing outing for the superhero genre that once reliably propped up the movie industry, Hollywood has still had a flying first half of 2026. In fact, some are now positing that we could see the best domestic box office year since before the pandemic, potentially crossing the $10 billion mark thanks to mega-hits like “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” “Michael,” and “Toy Story 5,” as well as a bumper second-half slate.

Still, between the inconsistency in the superhero cinematic universe, the (slim) chance that we may have seen “peak sequel,” and the recent rise of indie horrors helmed by internet personalities, it seems to be getting a little more difficult for some movie bosses to know which of their films are guaranteed to get the people out and filling seats across 2026. Streaming execs, meanwhile, might have happened upon a much more straightforward, if less inspiring, formula: just keep plundering the back catalog.

Former glories

According to the recent and aptly-named “Retro Revival” report from entertainment industry analysts at Luminate, the “2026 is the new 2016” trend that dominated social media feeds earlier this year was perhaps more prescient than it seemed at the time, with that same sense of nostalgia seeping into everything from the music we listen to and the way we listen to it, to how adverts and branding look now. Unsurprisingly, the world of TV and movie streaming has not been immune to the backward-looking movement, as content from streamers’ back catalogs increasingly comes to dominate the hours that viewers are spending on the platforms.

Across the first quarter of 2026, Luminate data shows that every major streaming platform it studied, with the clear exception of Netflix, keeps viewers hooked with older classics from its catalog, rather than fresh original content; Luminate highlighted the staying power of comfort TV like “Friends” and “Suits” as key retention drivers.

Netflix, often an industry outlier, makes sense as the sole platform where original content even nearly matches up to catalog offerings: the company has spent big on licensing and original content, laying out $135 billion over the last 10 years while other platforms, in Ted Sarandos’ words, “pull back.” Zoom out though, and it becomes clear that even Netflix’s content, alongside its competitors’, has become a little less original compared to previous years.