Disney Plus Touts Whopping 26.5 Million Subscribers in First Three Months

It sounds like Disney Plus was a rousing success. Walt Disney Company disclosed as part of its quarterly earnings release on Tuesday the first subscriber figures for the streaming service, revealing that Disney+ has signed up 26.5 million subscribers in its first three months. Considering that basically only includes subscribers from the U.S., Holland, Australia and New Zealand, those numbers are insanely robust and surpassed analyst expectations.

While that number is below the over 160 million Netflix subscribers and 100 million Amazon Prime subscribers, this early in the game—and again with limited accessibility worldwide—Disney has to be all smiles about that 26.5 million. The streaming service launched with an admittedly limited library of titles in comparison to competitors, but what they lacked in quantity they made up for in quality. A bevy of iconic Disney films, including animated and live-action titles, are available to stream at any time on Disney+, and the 4K quality of titles available in that format is astounding.

On top of that, Disney+ launched with the hugely successful first-ever live-action Star Wars TV show The Mandalorian, along with other hit original series like High School Musical: The Musical: The Series and The Imagineering Story. While Disney+ still hasn’t really hit its stride with original films just yet, it’s likely only a matter of time.

Disney+ is due to launch in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain on March 31st, so those subscriber numbers will only go up.

The Walt Disney Company also revealed during that same earnings call that Hulu, which Disney now controls, has hit 30.4 million subscribers, up from 22.8 million subscribers in December 2018. Those numbers will likely go up further as Disney begins creating film and TV content to debut exclusively on Hulu, including the new “FX on Hulu” brand of original shows like Devs and Mrs. America.

BY ADAM CHITWOOD/Collider