Disney+ now has more than 103 million global paid subscribers, Disney said today in its Q2 earnings report [PDF]. The streaming service has gained more than three million subscribers since March, which was the last time subscriber details were shared.
In April 2020, Disney+ had just 33 million subscribers, so the service's growth has been astronomical, exceeding all expectations in the year and a half since launch. When Disney+ first debuted, Disney said that it wanted to hit 60 to 90 million subscribers by 2024, a milestone it reached before the end of 2020.
Disney now expects to have 230 to 260 million subscribers worldwide by 2024, which will see Disney+ surpassing Netflix. At the current time, Netflix has 207 million subscribers and Hulu has 41.6 million subscribers.
Disney+ launched at the same time as Apple TV+, but it has grown much more rapidly given the available back catalog of Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars content, along with new TV shows like "The Mandalorian," "WandaVision," and "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier."
Going forward, Disney has set a target of 100+ new titles per year across Disney Animation, Disney Live Action, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic.
Apple has never provided details on Apple TV+ subscribers so there's no direct comparison to be made, but Apple's subscriber numbers are nowhere near Disney's because Apple still has many people who are on free trials that have been continually extended. Apple is also reimbursing Apple TV+ subscribers because of the free trial offerings, and plans to do so until July.
Apple is working hard to bolster its selection of original movies and TV shows, but it will be several years yet before Apple TV+ has a catalog that can compete with other streaming services.
Top Rated Comments
From Disney's earnings release:
The following table presents the number of paid subscribers (in millions) for Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu as of April 3, 2021:
Disney+ : 103.6 million
ESPN+ : 13.8 million
Hulu :
. . . SVOD Only : 37.8 million
. . . Live TV + SVOD : 3.8 million
As a parent, D+ was a no-brainer at launch. A year later, I kind of regret renewing my 1-yr subscription (yeah, I jumped in the deep end day one) as we’ve watched all of the content of (our) interest, a couple of times, and there is content on other streamers that I’m interested to check and our budget, and usage habits, neither affords, nor warrants, paying for all of the streaming options every month. Which is totally fine. Not like I’m looking to watch more TV.
So, pending TV strategy going forward?
Month to month only. And only (maybe) a select channel at a time. Ex: rock only Netflix for a month or two, then swap out for HBO. Get up to speed on their catalog for a month or two, then over to Hulu. Or back to Netflix. Sort of depends on their content map. Bounce around.
So yeah… Content is king. Obviously.