Since launching in November 2019, Disney's home streaming Disney+ has gained over 60.5 million global subscribers, reaching their goal to acquire 60-90 million subscribers by 2024. Even assuming Disney set a conservative 5-year goal for the streaming service, hitting the mark more than 4 years ahead of schedule is very impressive.
Starting with 54.5 million at the beginning of May, Disney+'s subscriber base grew to 57.5 million subscribers at the end of June and surpassing 60 million at the start of this month. For comparison, Hulu has a subscriber base of 35.5 million (although it's currently only available in the U.S.), Amazon Prime Video 150 million and Netflix leads the way with 193 million. Though it boasts the Marvel and Star Wars franchises, perhaps the biggest contributing to Disney+'s rapid growth has been the current COVID-19 pandemic which has forced many people to stay at home.
Some of Disney+'s big draws to its service were full seasons of animated shows like Ducktales and Gargoyles, a huge collection of classic movies both animated and their live action remakes, all current Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movies and nearly all Star Wars films and TV shows that have ever been. Disney+ launched with scripted show The Mandalorian, intended to expand the Star Wars universe and explore some parts of its lore to tell new stories with a whole slate of shows set around the MCU, such as Loki and Wandavision, intended to set up the next phase of the MCU lined up for the future.
In a recent earnings call, Disney CEO Bob Chapek announced that the live action remake of Mulan would debut on Disney+ for an additional cost of $29.99. Though currently a one off prospect, Mulan's additional charge could well pave the way for other films to debut on the streaming service, especially if the current pandemic limits future theatrical releases. In the sam call, Chapek said the current focus for Disney+ is producing more original programming as they believe that's the best way of getting new subscribers on board.
Disney also announced Star, a new streaming service for international markets featuring content from their range of networks such as ABC, FX, Freeform, Searchlight and 20th Century Studios set to launch in September.
Source: Deadline