Prime Video with Ads Hits 315 Million Viewers

In a rare bit of transparency from Prime Video, we now know the ad-supported service reaches 315 million viewers per month. That announcement came today during unBoxed, the annual Amazon Ads event.

The last time we heard a viewership number from Prime Video was April 2024 when the company said it had 200 million.

While the new number is an impressive Netflix-sized audience, there is an asterisk. This number includes viewership on Amazon’s free ad-supported channels. You’ll remember the company shut down Freevee earlier this year and folded it into the Prime Video ecosystem.

These stats beg another question. If 315 million are watching the ad-supported content, how many are paying the extra $3 to remove ads?

Prime Video seems like it has always been in search of an identity. While it has had some multi-season successes like “Bosch” (7 seasons), “Transparent,” “The Boys,” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maizel” (5 seasons each), “The Man in the High Castle,” “Goliath,” and “Jack Ryan” (4 seasons each), most of its shows have fizzled.

After knocking out some expensive duds like “The Wheel of Time” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” Prime Video seems to have pulled way back on its original content slate. The plan now seems to be to use Amazon’s deep pockets to snatch sports rights from other media companies. Now with the NBA, Prime Video has become an important player on the scene.

Sports draw a valuable live audience that can’t really be replicated with other content. Advertisers are willing to pay a premium to reach those viewers.

It would be nice to see Prime Video get back into the game of producing unique original series, but given the size and scale of Amazon, the video service isn’t anywhere near their top priority. And the sugar rush of sports viewership is a shortcut to success.