As Netflix continues to decline in popularity, another streaming service has emerged to take the crown for best streaming giant: Disney.
New figures reported by The Hollywood Reporter state that as of July 2022, Disney has a total direct-to-consumer subscription count of 221 million. Comparatively, Netflix has 220.7 million subscribers. Disney’s total subscriber count is split across three streaming platforms: Disney Plus, which has 152.1 million, Hulu, which has 46.2 million, and ESPN Plus, which has 22.8M.
Disney Plus, which makes up a very large portion of these subscribers, only launched in the UK in March 2020, and in November 2019 across the rest of the world. But despite only being around for a short time in comparison to Netflix, the platform is continuing to grow exponentially, with THR reporting that the streamer added 14.4 million subscribers during the company’s third fiscal quarter. As well as being the hub for classic Disney content, Disney’s acquisition of key IPs means that it also offers all the Marvel movies and Star Wars movies.
In the past year and a half, Disney Plus has also produced a number of TV series under these lucrative IPs, including WandaVision, Loki, Moon Knight, The Mandalorian, and Obi-Wan Kenobi.
But as the Disney Plus series just keep coming, Netflix, which lost just under a million subscribers in 2022, has become notorious for cancelling a lot of its original Netflix series’ after two or three seasons, causing fan backlash online. Disney Plus also recently acquired Netflix’s slate of Marvel series, which include Daredevil and Jessica Jones among others.
Meanwhile, Disney Plus recently announced plans to introduce a cheaper, ad-supported tier to the streamer entitled Disney Plus basic. According to Disney, subscribers of Disney Plus basic can expect four minutes of ads per hour split up into 15 and 30-second slots, with the tier costing $7.99 a month once it is introduced in the US in December 2022.
If this article has gotten you in the mood for the House of Mouse, why not start off by checking out our guide to the best Disney Plus movies? Or, if you’d rather stay loyal to Netflix, learn more about how to access more TV series and movies via their secret codes.