February reshuffled the streaming hierarchy in the U.S., driven less by scripted launches and more by the gravitational pull of live events. Major sports moments, franchise returns, and carefully timed catalog pushes converged during a month when attention shifted rapidly across devices. As audiences moved between spectacle and storytelling, the question wasn’t simply which titles launched – it was which ones stayed visible. The February U.S. Streamer of the Month report reveals which services translated those conditions into the strongest $MPV™ visibility.
The biggest shift came from the sheer scale of live programming. Peacock emerged as a central player during February, with coverage surrounding 2026 Winter Olympics Milano Cortina driving sustained exposure across connected TV environments. That visibility wasn’t confined to a single moment; it overlapped with other tentpole sports windows, creating a stretch of programming that kept live events firmly at the centre of discovery. How that momentum translated into overall rankings is detailed in the February U.S. Streamer of the Month report.
Scripted releases, meanwhile, continued to compete for attention around those moments. HBO Max maintained a strong presence through a cluster of returning titles including The Pitt and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, reinforcing how established franchises can stay within reach even when the calendar is dominated by live programming. At the same time, other services looked to familiarity and genre recognition to remain part of the conversation.
Elsewhere, visibility was shaped by contrast. Family-focused releases and franchise extensions surfaced alongside darker genre plays, while mystery-driven dramas and monster-scale spectacles appeared across key home screens. Titles such as Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and Paradise highlighted how recognisable worlds continue to function as anchors for discovery, even in months dominated by real-time viewing.
February also unfolded against a rapidly shifting industry backdrop. Major acquisition talks, debates around generative AI and copyright, and continued consolidation across Hollywood signalled a market where the competitive balance between studios, tech platforms, and distributors remains far from settled.
So which streamers held the strongest positions during this unusually event-heavy month, which titles maintained visibility beyond their launch windows, and how did live programming reshape the rankings? Full app standings, title-level analysis, device insights and industry news are available in the February U.S. Streamer of the Month report.
February ultimately showed how streaming discovery in the U.S. is shaped when live events and major franchises converge. Coverage of global sporting moments alongside returning series shifted what audiences encountered first across connected TV environments, illustrating how large-scale programming windows can quickly redefine the monthly streaming hierarchy.
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