BALTIMORE, Sept. 23, 2026 — It’s the most common dilemma that serialized digital content platforms face. Should they release an entire book or season at once so audiences can binge, or release chapters or episodes over time to encourage audiences to return?
The question extends well beyond online publishing platforms such as Wattpad and Webtoon. Video-streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+, and Prime Video also regularly choose among simultaneous, sequential, and hybrid release strategies.
New research published in the INFORMS journal Marketing Science finds that neither extreme is ideal. The fact is, platform revenue is highest when the two strategies are combined.
The study, “An Empirical Investigation of a Digital Platform’s Release Strategy for Serialized Content,” was conducted by Clarice Zhao of McGill University, Nitin Mehta of the University of Toronto and Mengze Shi of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Researchers found that the speed of content release does indeed influence revenue, and it does so through two opposing forces: binge consumption and product exploration. Releasing content all at once can hook readers or viewers and lead them to buy subsequent content of the same book/series. Releasing chapters and content over time brings readers back to the platform more often, which increases their exploration of other books.
“Faster release gets people hooked on a single book, increasing the chances that they will finish reading it,” said Zhao. “Slower release gets them back on the platform. Those two effects pull in opposite directions, which is why an all-or-nothing content drop is not the revenue-maximizing choice.”
The study’s analysis showed that sequential, rather than simultaneous, release of content yields higher platform revenue. To maximize profitability, a hybrid approach is even more effective. For online book publishers, a hybrid release may mean releasing 40% of the book up front, while the remaining chapters are released sequentially over time.
“The hybrid approach combines the best of both worlds,” said Mehta. “This approach leverages binge consumption and product exploration so that they complement each other, drawing the biggest possible consumer base to the products from the start, and keeping them interested over time. Releasing the first 40% of the chapters simultaneously is enough to hook readers, increasing the chances they finish the book. Releasing the remaining 60% of the chapters sequentially ensures that they will keep coming back to the platform, increasing their chances of exploring other books ”
Using data from a leading Chinese online book platform that holds a 70% market share in the romance genre and charges readers on a pay-per-chapter basis, the study authors estimated a structural model of platform visits and purchases. The study’s research sampling covered six months in 2017. It included 575 readers and 138 bestselling books in the “Pure Love” romance genre.
“The binge-consumption effect is significant,” added Shi. “When more chapters of a book are available, as in the case of simultaneous release, readers consume the chapters faster, and faster consumption in one period raises consumption in the next. This increases the chance that they will get hooked on the book and complete it.”
On the flip side, limited availability, as in the case of sequential release, increases the chance that readers can be turned off and lose interest before they are fully captivated in a marketing sense. Still, the exploration effect that comes with sequential release is sizable. On average, a notification that new chapters have been released for a book that a reader is already following doubles that reader’s probability of visiting the platform.
According to the researchers, counterfactual analyses show that switching from the platform’s current sequential practice to a full simultaneous release would cut platform revenue by 39%, driven by a 60% drop in platform visits. That would lead to fewer books being explored.
On the other hand, a cleaner sequential policy — one chapter per day for every book — would raise revenue about 5% over the status quo. But still, the best performer is the hybrid approach, in which the first 40% of a book’s chapters are made available simultaneously and the rest are released at a rate of one chapter per day. That hybrid yields 16% higher platform revenue than the current strategy.
From serialized-fiction platforms such as Kindle, Wattpad and Webtoon to video-streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+, and Prime Video, digital-content platforms must decide how quickly to make serialized content available. Although the study examines an online book platform, its findings highlight a broader trade-off: making more content available initially can encourage binge consumption, while releasing content gradually can bring audiences back and encourage them to explore other offerings.
The profitable question, therefore, is not binge versus drip. It is how much content to make available up front to hook audiences initially so that they return for sequential release of the remaining content. That’s the key to building a relationship with the customer, engaging the customer over time, and maximizing revenue.
Read the full study here.
About INFORMS and Marketing Science
INFORMS is the world’s largest association for professionals and students in operations research, AI, analytics, data science and related disciplines, serving as a global authority in advancing cutting-edge practices and fostering an interdisciplinary community of innovation. Marketing Science, a leading journal published by INFORMS, is the premier outlet for empirical and theoretical quantitative research in marketing, covering topics such as pricing, new products, channels, buyer behavior, and digital platforms. INFORMS empowers its community to improve organizational performance and drive data-driven decision-making through its journals, conferences and resources. Learn more at www.informs.org or @informs.
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