Disney+ Hotstar Now Has 50.1M Paid Subscribers, Brings Disney+ to 137.7M

Disney+ Hotstar now has 50.1 million paid subscribers, bringing Disney+’s global subscriber base to 137.7 million. This means that Disney+ Hotstar’s contribution to the Disney+ subscriber base now stands at almost 36%. Disney+ Hotstar became the fastest-growing Disney+ arm, growing 42% year-over-year, compared to 28% for Disney+’s core global subscriber count. Disney+ Hotstar had 43.66 million subscribers at the end of Q4 2021. It added 2.6 million subscribers in Q1 2022 and another four million in Q2.

The latest edition of the hugely popular Twenty20 Indian Premier League cricket tournament is one of the main reasons for Disney+ Hotstar’s growth in India. Disney’s Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President, Christine McCarthy, said the same during the entertainment giant’s quarterly earnings call: “We ended the quarter with nearly 138 million paid Disney+ subscribers worldwide. worldwide, which reflects nearly 8 million net additions since the first quarter (2022). Just over half of these net additions came from Disney+ Hotstar, which benefited from the start of the new IPL season towards the end of the second quarter. Internationally, excluding Disney+ Hotstar, we added more than 2 million paid subscribers compared to the first quarter with Latin America being the strongest contributor, driven by the growth of the Combo+ offer.”

The 2022 edition of the IPL season started on March 26 and is set to end later this month on May 29. With Disney largely offering annual plans, the majority of subscribers it gained in the last quarter through IPL 2022 will be reflected in its tally for the full year.

Disney+ Hotstar has concrete plans to expand further with 100 shows in the works in India, Disney revealed during the quarterly earnings call. The streaming service is also expanding territorially. It will be available in the Philippines later this year in partnership with telecommunications service provider Globe Telecom. Disney+ Hotstar will also be rolling out in Vietnam later this year, but the partner has yet to be announced.