Friends has now left Netflix, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to watch it online. After much speculation and a lot of rumors saying Friends was going to leave Netflix soon, the streaming platform shared the series was going to stay for the rest of 2019… but not through 2020. Come January 1, the group had to pack its bags and leave, all as part of a bigger plan. The series will move to Warner Bros’ streaming platform, HBO Max, which is scheduled for a May 2020 launch.
Created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, Friends premiered on NBC in 1994, and came to an end in 2004 after ten seasons. The series followed a group of young adults (Phoebe, Monica, Rachel, Joey, Chandler, and Ross) living in New York City and trying to balance their personal, social, and professional lives, because nobody said adulthood was going to be easy. Friends is regarded as one of the greatest TV shows of all time, and fans all over the world revisit the series whenever they can.
Friends gained new fans once it became available on Netflix in January, 2015, but the emergence of new platforms from different companies and studios has made many films and TV shows leave the streaming giant. Friends can no longer be found on Netflix in the U.S. (though it’s still on Netflix in the U.K.), so where can you watch it now?
How To Watch Friends Online (But Not On Netflix)
The best way to watch all seasons of Friends, without worrying about it suddenly not being available or your internet connection failing, is old-school style: DVDs and Blu-rays. If you don’t want to buy the box set and prefer to watch it online, there are still ways to do it while you wait for HBO Max to launch. All 10 seasons are available to stream on DirectTV and fuboTV, and Sling only has one season (and it’s unknown if it will have the rest at some point).
If you want to own the series but are not into having physical copies, you can purchase the series on digital – Google Play, iTunes, Fandango Now, and Microsoft have all seasons of Friends available for purchase. Fans outside the U.S. can still watch the series on Netflix, as the deal is only for distribution in the U.S., so they have nothing to worry about. Although HBO Max’s launch might seem to be far away, truth is that it’s just five months away (and time indeed flies). Friends will eventually come back in a platform that will have other films and TV shows for everyone to enjoy, and though the ways to watch the series in the meantime might not be the most ideal, it’s not like it’s completely unavailable.
Next: Friends: Why So Many Episodes Were Set Entirely In Monica’s Apartment
