During an earning call this week it was revealed that Disney has surpassed Netflix in the number of streaming subscribers the company has. In total, the house of mouse has 221 million subscribers across its various platforms. This comes as Disney+ added 14.5 million subscribers during the third quarter. The streaming service now has a total of 152.1 million subscribers. This beat the expectations of Wall Street.
The total of 221 million subscribers comes from Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. It is unknown how many of these subscribers are coming from the Disney Bundle subscriptions, however. This number is bigger than Netflix’s current 220.1 million subscribers.
In the United States and Canada, Disney+ added approximately 100,000 new subscribers. This helped it reach 44.5 million subscribers for the quarter, up from 44.4 million during the second fiscal quarter. Internationally, Disney+ grew from 87.6 million to 93.6 million subscribers. This does not include Disney+ Hotstar.
Disney’s other streaming services saw growth as well. Hulu went up from 45.6 million subscribers during the last quarter to 46.2 million. ESPN+ grew from 22.3 million to 22.8 million.
Along with surpassing Netflix in total subscribers, Disney also announced that there will be new ad-supported options and price hikes across its streaming services. This comes as Disney tries to move to profitability with Disney+ and ESPN+ in particular. During the third quarter, Disney spent $1 billion on streaming. Disney hopes that the new pricing options will raise the revenue per user.
What do you think of Disney surpassing Netflix in overall subscribers? Do you think it will continue? Do you think Disney+ will do the same? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!
