HBO MaxCopied

HBO Max became Max in 2023 under Warner Bros. Discovery. The Verge described the switch as met with immediate derision and seen since as an all-time screw-up on par with New Coke. In May 2025 the company announced it was giving up, and in July the HBO Max name went live again.

The reasoning came from the company itself: other services meet basic needs with volume, while no brand had stood for quality and distinct stories more consistently, over 50-plus years, than HBO. HBO chief Casey Bloys joked onstage that he still had a drawer full of stationery from the last time. Warner Bros. Discovery's JB Perrette stopped short of calling Max a mistake; he said consumer data showed HBO conveyed distinction and quality, and that the service should not try to be everything for everyone.

The identity, per the brand guidelines, puts the HBO Max letters in an iridescent white with subtle warm and cool tones for depth and movement, mainly on a dark radial gradient or solid dark background, in four colour options. Unlike the move to Max, users did not need a new app or account changes.

The relaunch landed on 9 July 2025. Branding experts interviewed by Variety read the reversal as an admission that Max had never built a distinct identity of its own, and Deadline called the two years the ill-fated Max era.

The Verge recorded the mechanics of the retreat: max.com began redirecting to hbomax.com and both app stores carried updated versions on the day of the switch. It also recalled the history, HBO Max launched in 2020 to consolidate HBO's messy streaming options, then became Max in 2023, a move it said had been seen as an all time blunder on par with New Coke. All this while Warner Bros. Discovery was preparing to split in two. Few rebrands are reversed this publicly; the lesson is that equity in a name is not something a logo can replace.

The timing also tied the name to corporate restructuring: The Verge reported HBO and the studios would join one company, with CNN and other networks split off. This is less a rebrand than an admission. Max threw away the one word that meant anything, and the only design decision that mattered here was putting it back.