Disney+ tops 26 million subscribers since November, beating expectations

Disney has reached 26.5 million Disney+ worldwide subscribers to date, the company disclosed in its latest earnings report.

For context, analysts had originally predicted right before launch that Disney+ would reach 20 million subscribers by the end of 2020. Projections were recently increased to 25 million subscribers by the end of March.

Notably, the video streaming service launched in Canada, the U.S., Australia and New Zealand in mid-November, meaning that the entertainment giant has hit the 26.5 million subscriber mark in just under three months.

Last month, Netflix reported 167.1 million worldwide subscribers to date, although that’s certainly not an apt comparison to Disney+, given that Netflix has been in business for much longer and operates in many more countries.

A more direct comparison would be Apple, which launched its own Apple TV+ streaming service in November. However, the company did not reveal a subscriber count in its earnings report last week. Instead, CEO Tim Cook simply said the company is pleased with the service’s performance so far.

Disney originally forecast 60 to 90 million subscribers by 2024, but these will no doubt be revised in the wake of Disney+’s strong performance so far. Disney also has yet to launch the service anywhere in Europe. The company will debut Disney+ in the U.K. and several other countries in late March and roll out to more European countries by the end of the summer.

While Disney+ has so far been a smashing success, some questions still remain about the service. Most notably, there’s the concern of churn — as in, how many customers will drop the service after a prolonged period of time. Initial hype and a smash hit, well-received Star Wars original in the form of The Mandalorian no doubt drew in many people.

However, skeptics have pointed out that Disney+’s original content offering is largely sparse now that The Mandalorian‘s freshman season has ended. The most notable original 2020 programming is being stretched across the entire year, with, presumably, months in between each release.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars‘ final season premieres later this month, while Marvel shows The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and WandaVision, as well as The Mandalorian‘s second season, aren’t set to premiere until much later in the year. Other content, like the Lizzie Maguire revival, doesn’t have a release window at all besides “2020.”

Nonetheless, Disney has much to look forward to for now when it comes to Disney+.

Disney+ costs $8.99 CAD/month or $89.99/year in Canada.

Image credit: Lucasfilm

Source: Disney