Disney Plus Loses 4 million Subscribers After Reporting Losses in 2022!

Disney+’s subscribers have decreased by several million, marking the second time the streaming service has seen a drop. 

The platform started in late 2019 with the first episode of The Mandalorian. It offers not only Star Wars shows and movies but also content from Marvel, Pixar, National Geographic, and more. The streaming service had been gaining more and more users since it began until late 2022, when Disney+ lost 2.4 million users for the first time ever.

Months after Disney+ saw its first decline in users, the streaming service has lost several more million users in its second consecutive quarterly drop. 

Variety reports that Disney+ lost another 4 million users in the first quarter of 2023. Disney+ now has 157.8 million total users.

The main reason for the drop in users is the same as last quarter: the ongoing loss of Disney+ Hotstar.

Disney+ Hotstar is the streaming service’s version for India and some parts of Southeast Asia. Disney lost the right to show Indian Premier League cricket games in 2022, which led to a significant drop in users in those areas. 

The streaming service actually gained almost 1 million users in other international markets without Disney+ Hotstar. The Disney+ price hike, which began in the United States, also went into effect internationally in early 2023.

Another possible cause for the second consecutive quarterly drop for Disney+ could be a high churn rate, which is when people cancel their subscriptions when there is no new content to watch. 

The streamer’s main series, The Mandalorian, came back with season 3 in March, after a long gap of Star Wars and Marvel content, but it was the show’s least popular and worst-reviewed season so far. 

Marvel’s next show Secret Invasion will debut on June 21. Unless Nick Fury can attract Disney+ users back, this downward trend might continue for a while.