Four years ago, the musical “Hamilton” broke all box office records for a single show and propelled the entire Broadway economy to its most successful year ever. The streaming video version of the smash hit is having a similar impact on the streaming video industry.

“Hamilton” debuted over the July 4th weekend on Disney+ and immediately became the most-viewed title across all five major streaming platforms (Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Apple TV+ and Disney+). The July edition of our Beacon by 7Park Streaming Video Monitor report reveals that “Hamilton” not only continues to maintain its popularity, it reversed a three-month industry-wide viewership decline. 

Across all platforms and households in our panel, the average household streamed 662 minutes in July, up 3% from June. That number remains well above March pre-pandemic stay-at-home order levels, but likely would have fallen without “Hamilton.”

Disney+ engagement was up 20% in July. Viewers spent 100 minutes on the platform, and the majority of that time was watching (and re-watching) “Hamilton.” It was the most watched show, accounting for 20% of all viewers and 7% of time spent across Disney+ and its competitors.

“Hamilton” clearly compelled people to at least browse the selections on the other platforms. In July, 26% of viewers watched two platforms, up from 22% in June; and 9% watched three or more platforms, nearly double the 5% that did so in June. 

However, that did not translate into an increase in the amount of viewership minutes for all five services. 

While Disney+ only viewers grew from 5% in June to 11% in July, daily time spent on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and AppleTV+ was down -3%, -8% and -10%, respectively. Hulu was the only other platform to experience an increase, up 4% due largely to the debut of the movie “Palm Springs” and viewers binge watching prime time TV classics like “Seinfeld,” “Boston Legal,” and “The Golden Girls.”