When Disney first announced the launch of their very own streaming service, Disney Plus, many were curious how it would fare in a landscape already saturated with streaming services. Netflix and Amazon are of course the giants. But there’s also Hulu, CBS All Access, HBO Max, and I’m merely scratching the surface here. Even in Malaysia, we have our own streaming services like iflix and Viu. Well, the numbers are in and as it turns out the House of Mouse cannot be stopped. In just five months, Disney+/Disney Plus — the streaming service that produced The Mandalorian — has already surpassed 50 million subscribers.
Here’s what Chairman of Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer & International Kevin Mayer had to say about the news (per Collider):
We’re truly humbled that Disney+ is resonating with millions around the globe, and believe this bodes well for our continued expansion throughout Western Europe and into Japan and all of Latin America later this year. Great storytelling inspires and uplifts, and we are in the fortunate position of being able to deliver a vast array of great entertainment rooted in joy and optimism on Disney+
50 million subscribers is an insane statistic! To put things into perspective, Netflix, which is the leading streaming platform in the world and has been running for years has about 160 million subscribers right now. Disney Plus was only launched five months ago and on top of that, it’s currently only available in the US, UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, Switzerland and India. Speaking off, the streaming service was only launched in India a week ago and has already garnered 8 million subscribers. Expect the numbers to only go up once it arrives in other regions of the world, especially Asian countries like Japan and South Korea.
It’s still unclear when exactly Disney Plus will arrive in Malaysia, but rumour has it that it will be available to us by the end of 2020.
