Disney+ Growth Slows As Service Hits 103.6 Million Subscribers

By Fletcher Peters @fIetcherpeters
Published May 13, 2021, 4:40 p.m. ET

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Disney+ has reached 103.6 million subscribers, Variety reports. Disney CEO Bob Chapek reiterated the number during the company’s earnings call Thursday afternoon. The streaming service added 8.7 million global customers in the latest quarter, jumping up from their 94.9 million at the start of 2021. Though this is an increase, these numbers show that the growth in subscriber numbers has started to slow.

According to these latest numbers, Disney has beat its original projections to secure between 60 and 90 million subscribers within four years. The platform has soared past that goal in just a year and a half — the service launched in November 2019.

“We are on track to receive our guidance of 250-260 million subscribers by the end of fiscal 2024,” Chapek said in the call. “Looking at our entire portfolio of streaming services, we expect that at full production levels resume and we get to a more normalized output, we expect that this will help fuel additional growth across Disney+, ESPN+, Hulu, and Hotstar.”

Within the last few months, Disney+ has debuted a handful of popular releases, including The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Raya and the Last Dragon, The Mighty Ducks, and the finale of WandaVision. Later this year, series like Loki and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series Season 2 are set to debut, with films like Cruella, Black Widow, and Jungle Cruise also releasing on Disney+ Premier Access.

Boasting 103.6 million global subscribers, Disney+ is closing the gap between streaming giant Netflix, which reported 208 million subscribers at their Q1 2021 earnings release. This is a substantial slowdown compared to the streamer’s rapid 2020 growth, but the news comes after a year of delayed productions due to the pandemic. Disney+ has topped Hulu, which has nearly 40 million subscribers, and HBO Max, which comes in at 44.2 million.

The streamer’s growth has come even with new price hikes, adding a dollar to make the cost $7.99/month as of March 26.