Disney+ Passes 60 Million Subscribers

Disney+ has been off to a flying start. Less than 9 months after launching in North America and the Netherlands on November 12, the Netflix competitor has reached 60.5 million paid subscribers, the company announced during the last quarterly conference call with shareholders.

Upon its launch in November, the company had forecast to reach between 60 and 90 million subscribers by 2024, an estimate that looks highly conservative from today's point of view. As the following chart shows, Disney+ subscriber growth really took off after the service launched in several major European markets in March.

And even though that launch came at a challenging time, it may even have benefitted from stay-at-home orders, at least in countries not as badly affected as Spain and Italy were at the time. After seeing a slowdown in subscriber growth since May, Disney will be looking for another boost in the fall, when Disney+ will be launched in further European markets and Latin America.