With a stacked line-up of movies and shows at the forefront of pop culture, HBO Max on Apple TV gathered family and friends to watch in the best way possible: with each other.– App Store Editors
In an era when streaming dominates our lives and we can watch anything at any time, HBO Max still had us settling in weekly for the latest episodes of The White Lotus and Task.
At the centre of it all is the HBO Max app on Apple TV, which streams the award-winning catalogue to the biggest screen in your home in stunning 4K UHD, HDR10 and Dolby Vision.
The app continued to push boundaries in 2025. It proved that even shows based on video games and comic books could be deeply moving, with some of the year’s hardest-hitting moments coming from unexpected places: Ellie singing “Take on Me” while playing acoustic guitar in the post-apocalyptic hellscape of The Last of Us (season 2, episode 4), or the gut-wrenching confession Emilia Harcourt delivers as she rejects the title character’s romantic overtures in the irreverent superhero series Peacemaker (season 2, episode 6).
HBO Max also continued to lead the way in accessibility, commissioning exclusive American Sign Language (ASL) versions of its biggest movies and series. In 2025, Deaf viewers could access full-length ASL versions of Superman, A Minecraft Movie and IT: Welcome to Derry alongside their streaming premieres.
And in July, the app became the first streamer to offer a feature-length movie in Black American Sign Language with the box-office hit Sinners. In Ryan Coogler’s innovative vampire epic, Deaf advocate Nakia Smith adds her own layer of emotion as she interprets each scene, especially the pivotal one in which Sammie soulfully sings the blues – and attracts a horde of vampires.
For more than half a century, HBO has set the standard for groundbreaking storytelling, and this year it showed there are not only more tales to tell but even more ways to tell them.
Read more about the 2025 winners
Quick tip
Want to add others to your watch party? Call them with the FaceTime app on Apple TV (using your iPhone or iPad as a webcam with Continuity Camera), then tap the SharePlay button in the options menu. After you select the HBO Max app, video will stream in sync for everyone in your group who’s a subscriber.
Fun fact
HBO (short for Home Box Office) launched in 1972, offering just nine hours of programming per day. Among its iconic show line-up, the epic fantasy Game of Thrones is to date the most watched.
Meet the creator
HBO launched in 1972 and released its first streaming app, HBO Go, in 2010.