Disney the owners of Disney+ has announced in its latest earnings report that its streaming service garnered over 60.5 million paying subscribers.
This is one of the many things CEO Bob Chapek disclosed during a call to discuss the company’s earnings report, which covered Disney’s most recent quarter, ending on June 27.
Chapek was essentially offering an update on the 57.5 million paid subscriber figure included in the report, and he said the growth is “far exceeding our initial projections for the service.”
Disney+ launched in November of last year. The company previously announced in April that the service had passed 50 million subscribers.
The service likely received an additional bump after the end of the quarter, thanks to the release of “Hamilton” over the July 4 weekend.
And of course, the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated growth for some streaming services. Most notably, Netflix added more than 10 million new subscribers in its most recent quarter, bringing its global total to nearly 193 million.
As for Disney’s other streaming services, ESPN+ has grown more than 100% year-over-year to 8.5 million subscribers (as of June 26), while Hulu grew 27% to 35.5 million subscribers (3.4 million of them are paying for both videos on-demand and live TV).
Overall, Disney said revenue for its direct-to-consumer and international division increased 2% year-over-year, to $4.0 billion, while the unit’s operating loss grew from $562 million to $706 million.
