Disney says its ad-supported streamers have 157 million viewers
Disney says its ad-supported streamers have 157 million viewers
Domestically, Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ combine to share 112 million ad-viewing subscribers.
The House of Mouse isn’t known for providing extra data about its streaming customers, so when it drops some numbers unexpectedly, it’s always an attention grabber. Disney did just that on Wednesday, announcing that its Disney Advertising subsidiary had performed a comprehensive count of the company’s ad-supported streaming subscribers around the world. The total is over 150 million, an impressive figure when comparing it to other services like Netflix.
Key Details:
- Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ combine to claim 157 million ad-supported monthly active users around the world.
- Disney counts monthly active users as Disney streaming account holders who watch ad-supported content for more than 10 seconds.
- Netflix shared in November that it had 70 million ad-supported customers globally.
Disney shared that the number of ad-supported monthly active users (MAUs) it has across ad-supported plans for Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ is now 157 million, including 112 million in the United States and Canada. The data was revealed at the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show.
To arrive at this number, Disney counted the number of active accounts that watch ad-supported content for more than 10 continuous seconds. That figure was then multiplied by the estimated number of users watching that account — globally, Disney figures 2.6 people per household watch a single streaming account, though that number fluctuates by region.
“Disney sits at the intersection of world class sports and entertainment content, with the most high-value audiences in ad-supported global streaming at scale,” Disney executive Rita Ferro said. “We wanted to be the first to offer our industry greater transparency into the methodology used to estimate our engaged global ad-supported monthly active users.”
There’s plenty to unpack in the Disney numbers. The company revealed during its last quarterly earnings report that it has 236.2 million streaming customers total around the world, not including overlap created by the Disney Bundle. If it uses the same methodology to count its total number as it did to arrive at its ad-supported monthly active user figure, that means the vast majority of Disney streaming customers are on an ad plan.
It makes sense that most of Disney’s ad-supported MAUs are in the United States and Canada, particularly because Hulu is only available in the U.S. as of now. The total number of ad-supported viewers on Disney streamers is more than twice that of Netflix, which revealed in November that it has 70 million global users on its Standard with Ads plan and other ad-supported offerings in different territories.
In fairness to Netflix, it must be reiterated that Disney’s ad-supported figures cover three different streamers, not just one. But Disney’s totals are impressive, and they help explain how the company’s streaming segment was able to end its fiscal 2024 as profitable, since ad plans generate more revenue per user than ad-free ones do.
Disney+
Disney+ is a video streaming service with over 13,000 series and films from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, The Muppets, and more. It is available in 61 countries and 21 languages. It is notable for its popular original series like “The Mandalorian,” “Ms. Marvel,” “Loki,” “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” and “Andor.”