When we talk about streaming platforms, you will probably think about Netflix immediately. And this is normal and expected because we all know that Netflix is the king of the streaming field. But would this stay the same? Many predictions show that Disney+ has an excellent chance to take the throne away from Netflix in a couple of years. Will this happen?
Will Disney+ take over Netflix?
According to the data about the two big streaming platforms, many sources say that Disney+ is expected to overthrow Netflix around 2025. Disney+ has been present on the market way shorter than Netflix but already has over 100 million subscribers. And those are only the Disney+ one, but we should consider that they own two other big streaming services — Hulu and ESPN+. Combined the subscribers, it turns out that Disney streaming services will most probably have more than 300 million subscribers in the next couple of years.
Netflix had more than 200 million subscribers at the end of 2020. Part of the reason was the increased interest in streaming because of the pandemic. Many people who didn't have an account or didn't use it decided to go with Netflix. Reasons are many, but a big one was that DIsney+ was still not available in many countries and that Netflix released some big hits like “Bridgerton” and a new season of “The Crown.” Other reality shows that were released by them as well made us forget about the problematic situation in the real world and made the streaming platform even more popular.
Ampere Analytics predicts that Disney streaming services will reach around 300 million subscribers in late 2024 compared to Netflix, which is expected to have only approximately 279 million. Even though Disney+ launched late in 2019, which is extremely late compared to the other big players on the streaming market. However, it has been very successful.
Disney+ catalog includes amazing titles that everyone loves — Disney classics, the movies from the “Star Wars” universe, and of course, the Marvel titles since they acquired them. This is what helped them get the record number of over 100 million subscribers for a short period of 16 months. Netflix needed much more time to reach this number of subscribers.
The war between the two streaming services has been going on for a long time, and they usually try to release new titles around the same time to attract people. For example, Disney+ titles like “The Mandalorian” and “WandaVision” brought many new subscribers to the platform, and on Netflix's side, “Tiger King” and “Squid Games” were the counterattack. However, the titles are from very different genres. And this is also determining a lot about the number of subscribers of each of the two giants.
The cultural difference and the content preferences are something we shouldn't neglect. Because of this factor, we can't actually predict the final numbers because we can't know which public will prefer which platform. Maybe many titles people will be more interested in will bring them into the magical world of Disney and Marvel, or perhaps they will prefer something like the very popular reality shows or short documentaries on Netflix.
A very big asset for Netflix is that they release content in many languages and from different countries all the time. But Disney+ is introducing some titles from the Marvel universe that for sure are very popular, and people will consider either switching to Disney+ or at least adding them to their streaming services subscriptions.
The pandemic helped a lot to all streaming services because people stayed home and wanted to entertain themselves with something. However, it was also a big challenge since they couldn't continue producing the new titles or the next seasons of existing ones. Especially for Netflix, this was a big step back since they don't release their content anywhere else but on their platform. For Disney, things were similar, but they have the advantage of a big company that releases movies also on the big screen. For example, they couldn't release Mulan in theaters, which is why they created a new type of subscription — Disney+ Premier Access. This subscription type gave people access to some movies that were available only on the big screen usually.
Amazon Prime, on the other hand, even though they also have a lot of exclusives like the Outlander and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, has only 147 million regular global users. Many of them are actually clients of theirs because of the sports events, including Premier League football and NFL. However, the numbers are expected to rise because of some exclusive content they will release later this year, like the series based on “The Lord of the Rings” or recent releases like “The wheel of time.”
What's next for Disney+?
The success that Disney+ achieved is surprising because when they started, they had very limited availability and a small catalog in the beginning. However, they managed to introduce a lot of new exciting content, and they know it should continue like that.
Disney is aware that they should continue introducing new content at a steady pace so people would stick to their platform and attract new ones. Their target is to add around 100 titles (movies and TV series) every year. If they manage to keep that promise, then most probably, the predictions of gaining more than 300 million subscribers by the end of 2024 will come true, and it will take the leader's place away from Netflix.
