• Netflix is still the top of all streaming sites in South Africa but its dominance has quickly fallen.
• Local upstart Showmax has nearly gained on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video but declined as of the beginning of 2025.
• The biggest growing platform has been Mubi, which South Africans have leapt to thanks to aggressive pricing in a poor economic climate.

With nearly 17 million South Africans expected to be streaming by 2029, the growth of content streaming in the country has been consistent, especially through on-demand platforms like Netflix, Showmax and others.

South Africa presents the continent’s most robust streaming market, with more rival platforms battling for share than any other country. For many years Netflix represented the largest platform in terms of users, but in recent years its growth has been slashed through intense pressure from competitors, both local and international.

Online streaming guide JustWatch has released the top streaming sites in South Africa by user interest for the first three months of 2025, and while some names on the list and their positions were expected, others are a complete surprise.

According to JustWatch, they utilised data gathered from the website’s 60 million monthly users, especially in South Africa, to gauge the times that users searched for programming on certain platforms over others. They were able to use this information to list the top 10 streaming series in the country just recently with The Last of Us taking the prize.

“Measured interest” is a good way to tell which platforms have the biggest market share because the site provides per platform guides for users. As more users select viewing guides than others, a pattern begins to emerge for which platform has cornered more South African viewers and their wallets.

While not as good as exact subscriber numbers, which are difficult to find per country basis, it is still a decent indication for the status of these platforms locally. The only discrepancy is that JustWatch does not serve guides for Disney+ so its inclusion is not measured.

Aside from the Disney-sized hole in the charts, we can take a look at the top streaming platforms in South Africa.

Now, the website shows that Netflix continues to be the largest streaming platform for the South African mind, followed closely by Amazon Prime Video at 28 percent and 25 percent of the market share, respectively. Local upstart from MultiChoice, Showmax has cornered a nice little 23 percent of the share, showing that it is battling with international powerhouses.

In fourth place is a bit of surprise, as Mubi has managed to corner 13 percent of the South African on-demand market share, followed by Apple TV+ and Curiosity Stream.

The flight of Mubi has been enormous, as the platform only had seven percent of the share last year. The platform recently launched a super aggressive R30 a month for four months promotion just for South Africans. It offers more artistic and indie films compared to more mainstream platforms.

But the data gets even juicier.

The only major streaming sites to actually gain users, aside from Disney+ which we do not have the data, are Prime Video and Mubi, with Mubi growing steeply month by month. While Netflix, Showmax and Apple TV+ have all decline in the first three months of the year.

Showmax took the hardest hit with a two percent decline in market share, while the “other” category which includes a large number of smaller platforms has also grown. This is probably a reflection of consumer reaction to the ever-increasing cost of living. As costs at the grocery store, rent and other critical expenses increase, South Africans may be looking at cheaper entertainment forms.

Mubi’s latest promotion could be working well in the current economic climate.

[Image – Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash]