The quarantine measures put in place due to the coronavirus pandemic have resulted in many people being home from work, with kids no longer able to attend school. What has everyone been doing to pass the time? To a large extent, watching a ton of TV and streaming programming, which is good news for the on-the-rise service Disney+. In fact, a new report suggests that Disney+'s popularity is skyrocketing in the wake of the quarantine.
The unexpected progress Disney+ has made in recent months has led to a much more promising forecast for the company's future. Digital TV Research's report (via Deadline) posits that Disney+ is getting a massive bump from the coronavirus quarantine, and has caused a subsequent uptick in predicting how things will go over the next five years. Where previous estimations saw Disney+ acquiring 126 million worldwide subscribers by 2025, Disney+ is now expected to reach a total upwards of 202 million customers.
This forecast of a 76-million subscriber increase is not entirely surprising. The streamer has been going above and beyond for subscribers since the quarantine began. For instance, the early home releases of Frozen II, Pixar's Onward and Star Wars: Episode XI - The Rise of Skywalker. Those high-interest options are obviously not the only incentive Disney+ has within its reserves. The ever-popular Baby Yoda is obviously around via The Mandalorian, which now has a behind-the-scenes docu-series out.
The new prediction for global subscriptions is quite impressive. Back in January, Apple TV+ was actually topping Hulu and Disney+ in subscribers, largely due to its worldwide availability at launch, as well as year-long free trials for certain customers. Currently, though, Apple TV+ is making minimal waves while Disney+ is showing no signs of slowing down in even as quarantine restrictions are starting to lift in places. The service that was ranked as being “as good” as Netflix in a months-old survey is continuing to succeed.
Speaking of Disney+’s rival, the aforementioned report expects Netflix to reach 258 million subscribers worldwide by 2025. That is about 56 million more than Disney+ is currently projected to accrue, up from Netflix's current total of 182 million customers. Let the streaming wars continue!
All of these stats were revealed as Disney’s boss made claims that he is not worried about recent delays on Disney+ series in light of production halts due to the coronavirus, confirming specifically that The Mandalorian will still be ready for its October premiere. However, many Disney+ projects were stalled after filming came to an end for the majority of TV series and movies across the board. Disney+’s The Falcon and The Winter Soldier has been able to start back filming in mid-May in the Czech Republic, which recently lifted some of its restrictions. Though most of the entertainment world pressed pause on creating new content, it's great that consumers have consistently been pressing play with so much that has already been released.
Disney+ launched back in November, quite a bit before the coronavirus outbreak. Recent data has shown how integral young viewers have been to Disney+’s success, and that has arguably never been truer, with teens and younger kids getting a combined spring and summer break from school.
In light of all of that, Disney+ has recently added to its upcoming kid-friendly content with a new show from Goosebumps’ author R.L. Stine, based on his Just Beyond graphic novels. It is just one of the many shows that Disney+ will be serving up as 2025 and that subscriber forecast moves closer.
Disney+ has a ton of content currently streaming on the service, but find out what'll show up everywhere on the small screen with this summer’s TV premiere schedule.
