Disney on Thursday announced that its Disney+ streaming service now has 94.9 million paid subscribers as of the fiscal first quarter of 2021.
The entertainment megacorp made the announcement in its December quarter earnings report. In December 2020, Disney+ had 86.8 million paid subscribers. This indicates that the streaming service gained around 8 million subscribers in two months.
Disney+ had originally hoped to hit a goal of 60 to 90 million subscribers by 2024. The company exceeded that goal in November 2020, when it hit 73.7 million subscribers. Now, it expects to have about 230 million to 260 million by 2024.
The coronavirus pandemic has contributed to Disney+’s fast growth rate. During the initial stages of the pandemic, the service gained 16.5 million customers in just 10 days.
Disney is making a big push in the streaming industry, as in October, Disney began reorganizing its business to shift its primary corporate focus on the online streaming service.
Direct-to-Consumer revenues for the quarter increased 73% to $3.5 billion and operating loss decreased from $1.1 billion to $466 million. The decrease in operating loss was due to improved results at Hulu, and to a lesser extent, at Disney+ and ESPN+.