Julia Stoll
Research expert covering TV and video media
Disney Plus - statistics & facts
November 2024 makes five years since Disney+ became the go-to streaming platform for Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars, and all Disney-branded content. Today, Disney’s own SVOD service has over 150 million subscribers worldwide, and continues to be one of the top names on the market.
Since its launch, Disney+ has significantly grown and has become a major player in the video streaming industry. But the challenges in maintaining content quality and subscriber satisfaction led to an adjustment of the provider’s strategy in order to guarantee continuous success in the highly competitive streaming landscape.
The road of success was not always smooth
While Disney+ was only available in a handful of markets at the beginning, it has since expanded to over 80 countries across North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region, leading viewer counts to skyrocket. As of late 2024, roughly 154 million viewers subscribed to the platform, which is even more impressive, considering that the company had initially hoped to reach 60 to 90 million subscribers that year. In contrast, despite Netflix remaining the largest SVOD provider globally, it took the streaming giant almost a decade to achieve similar figures despite navigating a much quieter market with limited competition. However, in the race for profitability, Disney could no longer rely solely on subscribers and announced several cost-cutting measures for its direct-to-consumer business. In fact, the launch of the ad-supported option seems to have paid off – one in four Disney+ users are now subscribing to this plan, and the ad revenue generated in the U.S. is estimated to increase by over 300 million U.S. dollars between 2023 and 2025.Drop of consumer interest drives changes in strategies
Disney is known to invest heavily in its content portfolio. Hollywood blockbusters such as the Marvel franchise generate billions of U.S. dollars at the global box office, and their exclusive availability on Disney+ helps draw millions of viewers to the platform. But although Disney+ still offers a rather limited catalog compared to other streaming heavyweights, such as Amazon Prime Video, the media conglomerate recently encountered quality problems. The share of consumers who are satisfied with the quality of Disney+ originals dropped by seven percentage points between 2022 and 2023, and the Marvel shows exclusively produced for the platform have become less popular. To turn this trend around, Disney planned to save three billion U.S. dollars in programming costs to offset operating losses. After a peak in SVOD commissions recorded in the third quarter of 2022, the company’s content spending has been declining ever since. With the cost savings in place, the operating income of Disney’s DTC business indeed grew in recent quarters and in the third fiscal quarter of 2024, the company made a positive profit for the first time.Since its launch, Disney+ has significantly grown and has become a major player in the video streaming industry. But the challenges in maintaining content quality and subscriber satisfaction led to an adjustment of the provider’s strategy in order to guarantee continuous success in the highly competitive streaming landscape.
