Disney+ picked up 7.9 million new subscribers in Q2, helping the House of Mouse increase its overall quarterly revenue by 23% to US$19.25 billion. The Disney streamer’s strong performance comes on the heels of its main rival Netflix losing 200,000 subscribers in Q1, its first loss in more than a decade.
Disney+ now has 137.7 million global subscribers in total, and is on track to hit its goal of reaching between 230 million and 260 million subscribers by fiscal 2024, said CEO Bob Chapek in a quarterly investors call. The growth moves it closer to Netflix, which currently has 221.64 million global subscribers.
In terms of geography, Disney’s North American SVOD subscriber base has grown from 37.3 million in Q2 2021 to 44.4 million this year. And international subs are up to 43.2 million, but this does not include India’s Disney+ Hotstar service, which has 50.1 million subscribers of its own. According to Chapek, more international growth is expected in Q3 2022, when Disney+ plans to launch in 53 new markets across Europe, Africa and West Asia. And he noted in the investors call that Disney+ currently has more than 500 original programming titles in various stages of development and production around the world to feed into this international streaming growth.
The company’s direct-to-consumer segment posted US$887 million in operating losses in Q2, compared to a US$290-million loss a year ago. Despite this, Disney still plans to spend US$11 billion on streaming content this year. And factoring in additional gains made by its other streaming services, Hulu and ESPN+, the company’s overall direct-to-consumer revenue rose by 23% to US$4.9 billion.
As for Disney’s parks, experiences and products segment, Q2 revenue increased to US$6.7 billion compared to US$3.2 billion a year ago.