Apple Has ‘Well Over’ 1 Billion Paid Subscribers for its Products, but How Many Are on Apple TV+?
Apple is clearly proud of its philosophy of streaming high-quality titles on Apple TV+, but is that translating to more customers?
The final quarter of the year was a good one for Apple. It turned in record revenues of $119.6 billion during the quarter, and a big part of those revenues were generated by Apple Services. That’s the division that incorporates subscription services like Apple Music, Apple Arcade, Apple Books, Apple News, and of course, the company’s on-demand streamer Apple TV+, and according to chief financial officer Luca Maestri, it boasts over 1 billion global subscribers.
- Apple has doubled the number of total paid subscriptions it has in the past four years.
- Estimates over the past few years have pegged Apple TV+’s subscriber total at between 25-40 million.
- Executives continued to tout Apple’s quality-over-quantity approach with the content on its streaming service.
What is Apple TV+’s Exact Subscriber Count?
As per usual, the quarterly earnings report from Apple did not break out its subscriber numbers for its individual services. That means we still don’t know for certain how many customers are using Apple TV+, though as long ago as 2021 analysts were estimating the streamer had around 40 million subscribers. That presumed total has fluctuated as low as 20 million and as high as 50 million over the years, but without confirmation from Apple, there’s simply no way to know for sure.
If Apple TV+’s subscriber count was 40 million in 2021, and it has doubled total subscriptions company-wide since 2020, it seems safe to assume that Apple TV+ has built more scale since then. A recent move by Apple may help it gain even more customers, as the company executed a complete overhaul of the Apple TV app in the name of making content discovery and streaming much easier. As can be expected, the app prominently features content from Apple TV+, though it’s also much easier to find titles from other streamers on the interface.
Is Quality-Over-Quantity Approach Winning New Subscribers for Apple TV+?
Apple executives were certainly proud of the level of content available on Apple TV when they spoke to Wall Street analysts this week. With one Best Picture Oscar winner in its library already (2021’s “Coda”) and “Killers of the Flower Moon” expected to seriously compete for another, the accolades are flying thick.
“Across all Apple TV+ productions, we’ve now earned 2,050 award nominations and 450 wins since we’ve introduced the service,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said proudly during the earnings call.
This has been Apple’s approach from the beginning, and it’s sticking to the philosophy of keeping a small, well-curated library of shows and movies brought to life by marquee directors and big-name stars. Apple TV+ counts itself among streamers with a high percentage of quality titles as determined by viewer ratings, and that’s exactly how the company wants it.
In a larger sense, Apple’s earnings report demonstrates that currently, it doesn’t really matter if Apple TV+ has a huge amount of customers or turns in a staggering profit as of yet. If Apple brought in nearly $120 billion in revenue during the fourth quarter alone, it clearly has the money to do just about anything it wants with its streaming platform. Obviously, Apple would prefer its streamer be able to turn a profit itself, but until that time it certainly has the cash reserves to be patient with Apple TV+.
Apple’s approach to streaming likely wouldn’t work for a lot of other media companies, as most are feverishly attempting to extract a profit from their streaming services at any cost. But with Apple making money hand-over-fist, and with its new Apple Vision Pro headset — launching Feb. 2 — poised to bring in even more revenue for the tech giant, at the moment the number of subscribers on Apple TV+ seems not to matter overly.
Apple TV+
Apple TV+ is a subscription video streaming service for $9.99 a month that includes high-quality original shows and movies including Best Picture winner “CODA,” popular sitcom “Ted Lasso,” and dramas like “The Morning Show” and “Severance.” Apple TV+ is also home to MLB baseball games on Friday nights and MLS Season Pass.