Disney has become the world’s top streaming platform provider based on subscriber numbers, as it overtook rival Netflix for the first time.
The Disney Plus service added 14.4 million subscribers in the latest quarter, which pushed the total number of paid streaming customers to a total of 221 million.
As well as Disney Plus, the company also offers the sports-focused ESPN+ and the video streaming platform Hulu.
The total number of subscribers was for accounts on all three platforms.
Many of the new Disney Plus subscribers were located outside the US in markets that the company is keen to expand and the number was far greater than many analysts had expected.
At the same time, Netflix, which has been experiencing falling subscriber numbers over recent months due to a combination of factors, lost close to a million more accounts during the same period.
That put the streaming giant very narrowly into second place, with a total of 220.67 million subscribers.
Not everything looked like a fairytale in Disney’s report, however.
The company warned that its loss of streaming rights for Indian Premier League cricket matches would have a big impact on its subscription numbers.
Instead of reaching 260 million subscribers by 2024, as it had previously forecast, it now expected to reach 245 million in the same timescale.
Disney’s streaming platforms lost more than $1bn in the last quarter
Disney’s streaming platforms are also far from reaching profitability.
Subscribers have been chased through heavy investment into content and programming, and the streaming part of the Disney business lost a total of $1.1bn (£900m) over the last quarter.
This was more than three times the loss of $293m reported in the same period a year earlier.
Despite this, the company still maintained its prediction that the streaming platform would begin to turn a profit by 2024.
Part of this strategy would come from raising prices for its ad-free streaming services in the US later this year.
Prices will jump from the current subscription fee of $7.99 to $10.99 per month.
A new partially advert-funded service will be launched at the same time at the current price of $7.99, meaning that subscribers can choose to accept ads or pay a higher price.
The company also expects to launch a similar ad-funded service outside the US in 2023.
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