Surprise: a Lot of Fucking People Are Watching Netflix!

2020 was Netflix’s biggest-ever year of growth, with the streaming platform and production company breaking 200 million subscribers at the end of the year. I would imagine that a significant portion of that growth can be attributed to the fact that a deadly global pandemic trapped many people in their homes for the majority of the year. People around the world are desperate for any source of escapism that might provide even a brief respite from the genuine horrors of this world.

Enter: all 16 seasons of Grey’s Anatomy! As someone who is currently five seasons into her own rewatch of the Shonda Rhimes masterpiece, I have to say that Meredith Grey’s life choices really put things into perspective—no matter how bad things get in my life, at least I’ve never willingly stuck my hand into a chest cavity with an unexploded bazooka in it. Sure, we’re living through a massive international health crisis, but it could always be worse!

Unsurprisingly, I am far from alone in my search for adequate escapist content—Netflix gained 8.51 million paid streaming subscribers just in the fourth quarter of 2020, surpassing their estimations for the quarter by approximately 2.5 million. Over the entirety of the year, the platform’s customer base grew by 36.6 million people, beating its previous record of 28.6 million customers gained over the course of 2018.

Although Netflix might currently be winning the streaming wars, my favorite platform of the moment is HBO Max—not only have they slowly been stealing beloved series off of Netflix and Hulu (looking for Friends and Gossip Girl??), they’ve also got original content from DC, a whole selection of Studio Ghibli films, and, of course, the entire HBO library of prestige television. And as we’ll likely be quarantining inside for the foreseeable future, I wish you all well in your quest for the perfect escapist content! (Be sure to let me know if you find any show that’s powerful enough to wipe the last year from your mind.)