Screenwriters' streaming residuals fell in 2025 for the first time ever, according to a Writers Guild of America (WGA) report, as the once-booming secondary market for licensing older films and shows to streaming platforms cools. The decline matters because streaming residuals had previously been the industry's growth engine, offsetting a longer-term slide in payments from network reruns, cable, foreign TV and home video, and were a central grievance in the 2023 writers' strike.

Writers earned $330.7 million in streaming residuals in 2025, down from $346.6 million in 2024. Total residuals across all categories have fallen 18% since peaking in 2022 (adjusted for inflation), to $535.5 million last year, though residuals for shows made specifically for streaming rose to $77.8 million, growing at a slower post-strike rate than before. The WGA also reported that writers' upfront earnings have dropped 24.5% since 2022 and the number of writers earning income has fallen 27%, which the union attributes to studios pulling back scripted programming after years of overspending, even as industry profits and streaming revenues have begun recovering.