Disney Plus Hits Over 164 Million Subscribers Worldwide

With various streaming service vying for new subscribers in what's becoming a very crowded market, Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ are all seeing year-over-year growth. As of October 1, 2022, Disney+ has hit over 164 million paid subscribers for its streaming service.

During its Q4 2022 investor call, Disney released subscriber info for Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. Domestically, there are 46 million subscribers for Disney+, showing 20% growth since early October of 2021. Internationally, the service showed 57% growth in the service, reaching 56 million paid subscribers. In total, there are 102 million subscribers for the Disney+ core. However, much of the paid subscriptions come from Disney+ Hotstar, which saw 42 percent growth over the past year, landing on 61 million subscribers.

During the past year, Disney+ had some high-profile releases. This includes the original series She-Hulk, Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Additionally, there were movies like Hocus Pocus 2, Chip n' Dale: Rescue Rangers, and the live-action Pinocchio.

Hulu had an exciting year as well, seeing 8% growth, with 47 million subscribers--which includes video on-demand subscribers and live TV + VOD subscribers. Hulu continues to push original programming like the recently-released Predator movie Prey, along with the original reality series The Kardashians. FX continues to have a working relationship with the streaming service, offering up its latest hit Welcome to Wrexham and the most recent seasons of American Horror Stories and American Horror Story.

ESPN+'s number were up 42%, reaching 24 million paid subscribers.

Disney+ will continue to see high-profile movies and TV series land on the streaming service, which will most likely add more subscribers to the service. The Wonder Man TV series, which takes place in the MCU, is one of those upcoming shows, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II has been reportedly cast to star on the series. Additionally, Disney has made a deal with the BBC to air new episodes of Doctor Who on the service starting in November 2023.

And in trying to improve the service's profitability, Disney+ will be adding an ad-supported tier in December. Netflix recently added an ad-supported tier to its service, and here's everything we learned about the service on its debut.