The recent surge in streaming due to the COVID-19 pandemic and stay-at-home orders has analysts revising previous projections. According to a report by London-based firm Digital TV Research, streaming platforms are seeing huge growth in projected subscription numbers, with Netflix and Disney+ right on top of that list.
“We have completely revised our forecasts for 138 countries in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research. “A major impact of lockdown has been a steep rise in SVOD subscriptions,” Murray told Deadline.
According to the report, Disney+ is now projected to hit 202 million global subscribers by 2025, up from the firm’s original forecast of 126 million, and well above Disney’s own conservative predictions of 60 million to 90 million by 2024. The Mouse House has almost already reached that range within the first year of launching, reporting 54.5 million subscribers as of May 4, 2020. Disney+ is yet to become available in some major countries which will open up a whole new set of viewers to boost these numbers even more. The rise in people staying at home has no doubt fueled this unprecedented success.
Despite the rapid growth of Disney+, Netflix is projected to remain the global streaming leader (besides China where US streaming services are not permitted) with a whopping 258 million subscribers forecasted by 2025. Netflix reported ending Q1 of 2020 with nearly 183 million subscribers, a 22.8% increase from last year. Netflix added 15.8 million worldwide subscribers in Q1, more than doubling its projected increase of 7 million.
Other streaming services are straggling behind compared to Netflix and Disney+, with Amazon Prime Video coming in 3rd with 141 million projected subscribers by 2025. HBO is on pace to have 25 million, with Apple TV+ forecasted to have 14 million subscribers within the next 5 years.
Did you know we now have a FREE app for iOS, Android, and Amazon Fire? Click HERE to download our app.
Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more news, tips, and reviews. Need cord cutting tech support? Join our Cord Cutting Tech Support Facebook Group for help.