Disney announced Wednesday that it had added 7.9 million new subscribers to Disney+ last quarter, beating Wall Street expectations, which predicted an increase of nearly five million subscribers.
Disney is slowly approaching the dominant position of Netflix in the field of streaming. The entertainment giant now has 137.7 million paid subscribers worldwide in the first quarter of 2022, compared to 221.84 million for Netflix. That’s 7.9 million more than the 129.8 million subscribers that Disney+ announced during its annual fourth quarter 2021 figures report.
The company also said subscriber numbers for all of its streaming offerings, including Hulu and ESPN Plus, were increased to more than 205 million, a significant increase from the 196.4 million announced in January. Disney+ therefore seems to be doing very well, unlike its competitor Netflix.
Disney+ gains subscribers, Netflix loses
We reported a few weeks ago that Netflix was in trouble, as the platform lost 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2022, a first in 10 years. It should be borne in mind, however, that this loss of subscribers was not explained by a massive wave of dissatisfied users of the service, but mainly because of the loss of the Russian market, which had several million subscribers.
Although Netflix recorded a loss of subscribers in the previous quarter due to the war in Ukraine, its number of subscribers had also increased in other countries. The situation is therefore not as catastrophic as it seems. Netflix could also soon welcome a big wave of new subscriptions thanks to a new, more affordable offer with advertisements at the end of 2022. We also know that the platform intends to crack down on account sharing, which could push some users to take out their own subscription.
Disney + will also follow in the footsteps of Netflix by also offering its own cheaper formula with advertisements by the end of 2022, and should also take strong measures against the sharing of passwords. Thanks to this, Disney plans that Disney+ will have between 230 and 260 million subscribers worldwide when the service is five years old, at the end of 2024.
