The biggest casualty of Will Smith’s on-stage drama at Sunday night’s Oscars was the 53-year-old’s reputation, followed closely by Chris Rock’s jaw. But Apple chief executive Tim Cook might have been left lamenting the hot-blooded incident too.

When Smith’s slap on the comedian went viral, it siphoned attention away from another piece of Academy Awards history.

Apple’s CODA, a coming-of-age tale about a child of deaf parents, became the first film available only on a streaming service to win the coveted Best Picture Oscar.

In less than three years, Apple TV+ had scaled Hollywood. In comparison, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, the two heavyweights of streaming, released their first original movies 10 and seven years ago but are yet to secure the coveted gong.

Whether approval from awards judges translates into commercial success is another matter. Since launching at the end of 2019, Apple has at times appeared to be a bit-part player in the increasingly crowded streaming wars, releasing a handpicked string of critically lauded shows and movies but without the mass market appeal of Netflix or Disney Plus.

In recent months, however, there have been signs that the service is building momentum.

“Up until a few months ago, there was a lot of scepticism about Apple’s foray into the TV space,” says Paolo Pescatore, an independent media analyst. “That was probably unjustified. You’re now starting to see Apple as a serious credible player.”

Analysts at Wedbush say: “We also believe that Apple being the first streamer to win Best Picture and not Netflix or Amazon on the podium is a ‘drop the mic moment’ for Cupertino that should significantly bolster its subscriber base while attracting more A+ Hollywood talent to its platform for future projects.” 

Apple’s streaming service was announced to the world in March 2019 inside the underground auditorium at its Silicon Valley campus where the company also unveils new iPhones and Macs. 

The star-studded event featured cameos from Jennifer Aniston, Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg. A few months later, when Apple said the service would cost just £4.99 a month, it was enough to send Netflix shares falling. 

But when the service actually launched in November 2019 it boasted just three titles, Aniston’s The Morning Show, science fiction drama For All Mankind, and the dystopian See. 

Underlining its less-than-complete slate of programming, it gave those who bought new Apple gadgets a year of the service for free.