Disney+ hits 95 million subscribers globally, Disney+ Hotstar's tally reaches 28 million

Video streaming platform Disney+ Hotstar has around 28 million paid subscribers, helping Disney+ take its global subscriber base up to 95 million. While it doesn't seem surprising considering the substantial investment Disney has made in the platform, the numbers have far surpassed the company's goal to hit 90 million subscribers in 2024.

In the past quarter, Disney+ and Disney+ Hotstar added 21.2 million subscribers, with the latter's contributions to the figure going up from 25 to 30 percent. Disney+ Hotstar alone saw quarterly growth of around 10 million paid subscribers.

Disney's Senior Executive VP and Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy, said, "With 95 million paid subscribers at the end of Q1 (2021), Disney+'s global net additions were 21.2 million versus Q4 (2020). Disney+ Hotstar subscriber additions continued their strong growth trend with Disney+ Hotstar subscribers making up approximately 30 percent of our global subscriber base. Disney+'s overall ARPU this quarter was $4.03. However, excluding Disney+ Hotstar, it was $5.37."

Disney+'s main objective now is to hit 230 to 260 million users, putting it closer to rival Netflix (200 million subs). Back in December, Disney+ had 86.8 million paid subscribers, which suggests that the platform gained 9 million new subscribers in about a month. Disney is taking a page out of Netflix's playbook and will only provide subscriber numbers when it crosses certain milestones.