Disney Plus smashes targets by surpassing 100m subscribers

Disney Plus smashes targets by surpassing 100m subscribers
(Image credit: Disney)

Disney Plus has revealed it now has over 100 million global paid subscribers, surpassing its own ambitious targets.

The announcement was made by Bob Chapek, Disney CEO, at a shareholder meeting on Tuesday. Chapek said: “The enormous success of Disney+ –which has now surpassed 100 million subscribers – has inspired us to be even more ambitious and to significantly increase our investment in the development of high-quality content.

“In fact, we set a target of 100+ new titles per year, and this includes Disney Animation, Disney Live-Action, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic. Our direct-to-consumer business is the Company’s top priority, and our robust pipeline of content will continue to fuel its growth.”

The last time Disney gave an update on viewing numbers was in February during its first-quarter earnings, where shareholders were notified that, as of January 2nd 2021, there were just over 94 million subscribers. That figure, however, didn’t take into account the success of recent big hits, WandaVision and Raya and the Last Dragon

When the streaming service launched 16 months ago, Disney modestly put forth a subscriber target of 90 million within 4 years. It has now revised its expectations and plans to reach between 230 million and 260 million users by 2024, squaring up to market leader Netflix, which currently has more than 203 million global paying customers.

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Mary is a staff writer at What Hi-Fi? and has over a decade of experience working as a sound engineer mixing live events, music and theatre. Her mixing credits include productions at The National Theatre and in the West End, as well as original musicals composed by Mark Knopfler, Tori Amos, Guy Chambers, Howard Goodall and Dan Gillespie Sells.