Disney+, the company’s subscription streaming service that launched 16 months ago, has just surpassed 100 million global paid subscribers.
The company made a special announcement regarding the milestone after just disclosing that Disney+ had 94.9 million subscribers at the end of the most recent quarter.
“The enormous success of Disney+ —which has now surpassed 100 million subscribers—has inspired us to be even more ambitious, and to significantly increase our investment in the development of high-quality content,” said Disney CEO Bob Chapek in a statement. “In fact, we set a target of 100+ new titles per year, and this includes Disney Animation, Disney Live Action, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic. Our direct-to-consumer business is the company’s top priority, and our robust pipeline of content will continue to fuel its growth.”
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Disney+ launched in the U.S. on November 12, 2019 and has since rolled out across Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Latin America and Singapore.
Disney originally projected its streaming service would attract 60 million to 90 million subscribers by 2024. The company has since revised its expectations and set its sights on between 230 million and 260 million Disney+ subscribers globally within that same timeframe.
The rapid growth for Disney+ has led some industry analysts to predict that the service will overtake Netflix for the top spot within the next five years. Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research, said that based on December 2020 results, his firm expects that the number of subscribers to Disney+ (294 million) will pass the Netflix total (286 million) in 2026.
Murray said that much of that growth will come from Asia but that it won’t account for the majority of Disney+’s revenue.
“Disney+ Hotstar will roll out to 13 Asian countries by 2026. These countries will supply 108 million (37%) of the global Disney+ subscriber total, but only $2.62 billion (13%) of the platform’s revenues by 2026,” said Murray in a statement. “Hotstar subscribers pay less than a third of the monthly subscription fee of their U.S. counterpart.”