Back in the days of cable, HBO was one of the biggest pay television services under the Warner Bros.–Discovery umbrella. They were everyone’s go-to for movies and groundbreaking original series. When streaming started to take a foothold in the early aughts, they jumped on the bandwagon with HBO Go. The brand took on a few more iterations, eventually dropping the HBO and reintroducing itself as just Max in 2023. And just like that, it’s 2025 and they’ve pivoted again — this time back to HBO Max.

And it looks like it’s here to stay.

The decision to rebrand and switch to just Max was driven by the inclusion of content under the Discovery banner—travel shows, documentaries, cooking shows, and more—in a push to diversify the streamer’s content. However, surveys showed that the most consumed content on the site were those HBO had become known for—original series like The White Lotus, Game of Thrones, and the runaway hit, The Last of Us. This latest change, according to a recently published interview of Casey Bloys, chairman of HBO content, was a strategic move in response to customer behavior.

Shifting back to HBO Max is also an opportunity to further build on the brand’s continued reputation for delivering the highest quality content to its subscribers. This should firmly put them on track toward their goal of hitting 150 million subscribers by 2026.