Indian members left the most, although accounts also disappeared in the US and Canada.
Disney Plus’s subscriber base declined for the first time since the business introduced it in 2019 with a loss of 2.4 million customers in the three months ending December 31, the company reported on Wednesday.
The Disney Plus Hot star service, an Indian offering with a significantly cheaper pricing than the company’s streaming offerings abroad, had Disney’s greatest declines in streaming subscribers. There, 3.8 million accounts less people joined the group.
Additionally, Disney Plus lost 200,000 US and Canadian subscribers. However, growth in other countries abroad partially offset the reductions. As of the end of December, Disney Plus has 161.8 million subscribers worldwide.
Comparatively, in the more than ten years since it began streaming, Netflix, the largest subscription streaming service of its sort, has racked up more than 230 million global customers. However, during the first part of last year, Netflix had its biggest subscriber losses in ten years, indicating that the battle for streaming customers had reached its limit.
Disney added on Wednesday that there are now 48 million Hulu customers and 24.9 million ESPN Plus subscribers, both 2% increases.
Early on in the “streaming wars,” when practically every major media corporation (as well as several tech ones) launched their own streaming-video services, Disney Plus emerged as the clear winner. Disney Plus has grown much faster than any of its new rivals from Apple, HBO, NBCUniversal, Discovery, and other sources. Disney Plus was hailed as “one of the greatest product debuts of all time” by a media commentator.
By the time the service turns five, in late 2024, Disney Plus is expected to have between 215 million and 245 million global customers.
