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June Is Busy for Streaming Services. Let’s Help You Decide Which Ones to Keep

Avatar swoops in, and you may not want to cancel Netflix if you’re a fan of Henry Cavill in The Witcher.

If there’s one month during the summer you want to have the big three streaming services — Netflix, Max and Disney Plus — on your roster, it’s June. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still consider your wallet, especially if you may now be paying for extra people to use your Netflix account.

Avatar: The Way of Water hits Disney Plus and Max (formerly HBO Max) on the same day, and Manifest, Black Mirror and The Witcher all return to Netflix. Though AMC Plus isn’t on this list, The Walking Dead: Dead City debuts with Negan front and center. It’s time to get your favorite streamers in order. 

Every month you may want to weigh whether to cancel a streaming service because of the content that’s currently available and how much you’re paying for each service. I want to offer one strategy: Churn like butter.

What does that mean? Subscribe, cancel, roll with a different platform, then resubscribe. Rotating services as needed helps save money when Netflix, Disney Plus, Max and others don’t have the content you want to watch at a given time. Just remember to shut off autorenewal for your monthly subscriptions. Churning may not be an option if you’re sharing your accounts with people outside your household, of course. But if you can work out an arrangement with your streaming partners, go for it. 

Here are my recommendations for which streamers to keep or cancel for June, based on new shows and movies (I didn’t consider sports and live TV streaming services) arriving on each platform. Naturally, your tastes may be different, but if nothing else, I urge you to at least consider the concept of rotating for savings. It’s easier than you might think.

Read more: Best Streaming Services of 2023

Streaming Service Rotation June 2023

Keep Cancel
Disney Plus X
Netflix X
Apple TV Plus X
Max X
Starz X
Hulu X
Paramount Plus X
Prime Video X
Peacock X

Hold on to Disney Plus, Netflix and Max

Disney Plus: If you didn’t catch it in theaters, Avatar: The Way of Water lands on June 7. Marvel also rules with a new Stan Lee documentary (June 16) and the premiere of Secret Invasion on June 21.

Netflix: It’s time to say goodbye to a few shows in June, including Manifest. Here are the standouts on Netflix this month:

  • Manifest, season 4, part 2 (June 2)
  • Arnold (a documentary on Arnold Schwarzenegger, June 7)
  • Never Have I Ever, season 4 (June 8)
  • Bloodhounds (K-drama, June 9)
  • Human Resources, season 3 (June 9)
  • Black Mirror, season 6 (June 15)
  • Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King (anime, June 16)
  • Extraction 2 (June 16)
  • The Witcher, season 3, volume 1 (June 29)
  • Nimona (June 30)

Max: One week after revamping HBO Max to Max and adding more Discovery Plus content, the platform has a few notable debuts for its June slate.

  • Magic Mike’s Last Dance (June 2)
  • The Idol (controversial new series starring Lily-Rose Depp and The Weeknd, June 4)
  • Avatar: The Way of Water (June 7)
  • The Righteous Gemstones, season 3 (June 18)
  • Downey’s Dream Cars (June 22)
  • Warrior, season 3 (June 29)

There’s also TNT’s AEW All Access (June 9), a new season of We Baby Bears (June 18) and 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days (June 4).

Hulu: Two years after a successful first installment, the second season of Cruel Summer arrives June 6. The Flamin’ Hot movie dives into the true story of Richard Montañez on June 9, but you can also stream it on Disney Plus. Other Hulu releases include The Wonder Years, season 2 (June 15) and The Bear, season 2 (June 22).

Starz: Outlander, season 7 is here on June 16, and fans won’t want to miss out. Right now, there’s a special deal where you can get Starz for $5 per month for three months.

Consider canceling these services in June

Prime Video: If you don’t already have Prime Video, I suggest waiting to sign up in July as the buzziest titles hit around the end of June and into July. Of course, if you already receive access through your Prime membership, don’t worry about canceling the streaming app. Here’s a sample of what’s coming: Dead Loch (June 2), I’m a Virgo (June 23) and Jack Ryan, season 4 (June 30). 

Peacock: The entire eight-episode season of Based on a True Story, starring Chris Messina and Kaley Cuoco, will post on June 8. You may want to cancel Peacock after a binge unless you’re a fan of Days of Our Lives, sports and Bravo’s reality shows.

Paramount Plus: New releases include iCarly, season 3 (June 3) and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, season 2 (June 15). If you prefer, you can skip the platform this month and wait to binge these shows in a few weeks.

Apple TV Plus: Ted Lasso just ended on May 31, so do you really want to keep Apple TV Plus? If you do, Idris Elba’s new series, Hijack, debuts June 28, and Silo’s finale airs on June 30. Otherwise, cancel the service for now.

woman sit with palms extended as man sits next her looking perplexed woman sit with palms extended as man sits next her looking perplexed

Binge all of Based on a True Story on Peacock with Kaley Cuoco, then chop the streamer.

Peacock/NBC Universal

Save more cash by waiting

If you’re not someone who routinely gets FOMO, then a smart method is to wait until the bulk or all episodes of your favorite series land on a platform. That way, rather than pay for a service for two or three months to cover the six- to 10-week run of a show, you can catch up on everything by subscribing for one month. And then repeat the cycle.

man dressed in black trench coat wearing an eye patch looks off to the side man dressed in black trench coat wearing an eye patch looks off to the side

You could wait to watch Nick Fury and the Skrulls if you’re patient. 

Marvel Studios/Disney Plus

For example, there will be eight episodes of Secret Invasion on Disney Plus. The finale drops in August, so all episodes of Marvel’s show will be available to stream at that time. Though it premieres on June 21 and runs through August, save yourself three months of fees by waiting to stream it in full anytime in August or September. You can do the same thing with Cruel Summer on Hulu or the nine-episode run for The Righteous Gemstones on Max.

Note how much you’re paying per month for each streaming service, and do the math. Apple TV Plus is $7. Netflix is $7 to $20 (plus fees for extra members), Disney Plus is anywhere from $2 to $11 depending on bundles, Max costs $10 to $20, Hulu starts at $8 and Starz runs $9. The others have a base rate of $5 per month (for now). Should you decide to churn, set yourself a calendar reminder to alert you when it’s time to resubscribe or cancel. We’ll see you in July for another streaming rundown. 

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WWE 2K25 Jumps From the Top Rope Onto PlayStation Plus in September

Subscribers will also be able to play a turn-based strategy Persona game.

«The American Nightmare» Cody Rhodes, son of one of the greatest pro wrestlers of all time, «The American Dream» Dusty Rhodes, is the current undisputed WWE champion. And PlayStation Plus subscribers can bring Rhodes down a peg or help establish a new wrestling dynasty with the champion beginning on Sept. 16 in WWE 2K25.

PlayStation Plus is Sony’s version of Xbox Game Pass, and it offers subscribers a large and constantly expanding library of games. There are three PlayStation Plus tiers — Essential ($10 a month), Extra ($15 a month) and Premium ($18 a month) — and each gives subscribers access to games. However, only Extra and Premium tier subscribers can access the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog. 

Here are all the games PS Plus Extra and Premium subscribers can access starting on Sept. 16. You can also check out the games all PS Plus subscribers can play in September, including Psychonauts 2.


Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.


WWE 2K25

Take control of your favorite superstar from the men’s and women’s divisions in this knockdown, dragout wrestling game. Become one of over 300 wrestlers from today and years past, like Rhea Ripley and Andre the Giant. This entry in the series also introduces intergender wrestling matches, barricade diving and new brawl environments where you can get over or turn heel.

Persona 5 Tactica

Join the Phantom Thieves in this real-time strategy game set in the Persona universe. You and the group wander into a bizarre realm where people are living under tyrannical oppression, and you cross paths with a revolutionary named Erina. Now you’re in cahoots with the rebels as you try to free an oppressed people and find your way back home.

Other games on PS Plus

Those are a few of the games Sony is bringing to PlayStation Plus, and subscribers can play these games as well starting on Sept. 16.

*Premium subscribers only.

For more on PlayStation Plus, here’s what to know about the service and a rundown of PS Plus Extra and Premium games added in August. You can also check out the latest and upcoming games on Xbox Game Pass and Apple Arcade.

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Technologies

Little Nightmares 3 Hands-On: a Creepy Co-Op Game Arriving Just in Time for Halloween

The sequel adds cooperative play with all the haunting hallmarks of the earlier games.

After about an hour playing Little Nightmares 3, I’d used a person’s bisected halves to solve a puzzle, gotten a high score in a carnival shooting game and escaped the murderous claws of a deranged baby. As a 2-foot-tall youth trying to survive the morbid dangers of one demented area after another with my co-player, I was terrified and delighted.

I’ve only sampled the first two Little Nightmares games, but in my brief preview of Little Nightmares 3, it felt like a refined version of the series’ premise: small protagonists endangered by a large, grim world filled with traps to evade, puzzles to solve and horrid, lethal enemies to outwit. Take the scale of the animated horror movie 9, mix it with the darkest of stop-motion director Henry Selick’s maudlin settings and let players enjoy the haunting ride, room by perilous room.

This time, players aren’t alone. In Little Nightmares 3, developed by Supermassive Games, two players (or one and an AI companion) choose between characters Low (a bird-masked boy with a bow) and Alone (a girl with a jumpsuit and a wrench), who rely on each other and get out of rooms using their unique tools or just good ol’ fashioned teamwork. Sometimes this means pushing a box for the other to jump on, but other obstacles require rather complex puzzle-solving. 

In the game, Low and Alone seek to escape the bleak Nowhere and its roulette of dystopian lands. My preview was limited to one of these areas — Carnevale, a demented circus where our small characters had to sneak under the feet of grotesque, ambling workers (or their corpses, tied up or swinging for the sport of their fellows). When we thought we were safe, possessed puppets sprinted after us until we could team up to knock their wooden heads off and crush them. Being noticed by anyone meant our demise, requiring frantic cooperation amid the anxious stakes of rather gruesome deaths. 

It’s this tension and the dour setting that sets Little Nightmares 3 apart from other co-op games like the more excitable and dynamic Split Fiction released earlier this year, a rollercoaster flipbook of game genres that made for a breathless if not terribly coherent experience. In contrast, the section of Little Nightmares 3 I played unfolded like a series of grim vignettes that rely on its pleasingly goth trappings as much as working together with your friend (or computer teammate) to progress. 

Surviving your little nightmares

While I got only an hour with the game, Little Nightmares 3 seems to iterate on rather than innovate away from its predecessors: Expect more of the same in new, grotesque settings, just with the welcome addition of tightly designed teamwork dynamics. For fans of the series, this is likely a good thing. There’s not much else like Little Nightmares.

The Carnevale stage I played through opened up with rain pelting red-and-white circus tent tops, which I as the masked Low (and someone from Bandai Namco who kindly played as the jumpsuit-wearing Alone) skittered between. Lumbering above us were brutish factory workers seeking escape at the funfair, which very quickly turned sinister as we very shortly saw some hanging tied-up as others took turns beating them like a piñata. We entered one room to find one worker in connected boxes as the subject of a magician’s saw-in-half trick…which was no trick, as we had to separate the halves to climb out of a window. I tried, and failed, to ignore the viscera slopping out of the boxes.

While we hid from the human-size enemies, we had to fight the wooden puppets. Like Geppeto’s most horrid creations, they ambushed us in several rooms, requiring me to knock their heads off with Low’s bow and run away from their decapitated bodies while my teammate rushed forward to crush their heads with Alone’s wrench. 

But most of the rooms are about solving puzzles, which could be as simple as moving a box for my teammate to jump up and pull a switch or figure out how a radio plays into a complex solution. While these quiet moments are a nice break from the tense combat or pursuit, they also give time to appreciate the macabre backgrounds: I ran past one room with a circle of empty tall chairs only to come back a few seconds later to find them filled with puppets, unmoving but watching.

And then there are the really, really tense moments. We moved from the carnival to the adjoining candy factory (apparently where all those brutes work) and up to the offices where the boss works, to find him asleep with the TV droning on in the darkness…and his frankly hideous baby nestled next to him. Naturally, we had to make noise, cranking open a grate, awakening the terrifying spawn who ran after us. After many, many failed escapes, my teammate and I discovered we had to scramble for a hiding place after making it past the grate. 

This was perhaps the most frustrating part of the preview as we panicked looking for a solution to our deadly woes (as opposed to the slow, methodical gameplay earlier) — but that’s part of the tension, especially when adding a teammate to the mix. Ultimately, it was a hard-won lesson in patience. In the next room, a kitchen, the nightmarish baby banged a bowl on the table until the father walked over to a corpse (presumably his worker) and cut out some meat for his ghoulish child to eat.

In my short time with it, Little Nightmares 3 seems like a cooperative spooky storybook for players and their friends (but not couch buddies, sadly — it’s online co-op only) to experience. How much it lives up to previous games in the series, especially as developer Supermassive Games takes more of the reins from the franchise’s original creators Tarsier Games, is anyone’s guess. (Tarsier’s similar spiritual sequel to Little Nightmares, Reanimal, is coming in 2026.) 

But as the air turns crisp and Halloween beckons, it’s the best time of the year for a creepy co-op game like Little Nightmares 3 to land.

Little Nightmares 3 comes out Oct.10, 2025, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2.

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