Paramount Reaches Nearly 64 Million DTC Subscribers in Q2 2022, Including 43 Million with Paramount+

On Thursday, Paramount released its second quarter 2022 earnings report, which included the latest subscriber numbers for Paramount+.

During Q2 2022, the streaming service added 4.9 million subscribers (before the removal 1.2M Russia subscribers) to bring its global total to 43 million (up from 39.6 million). By combining Paramount+’s total with other Paramount streamers SHOWTIME, BET+, and Noggin, the company’s total subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) subscribers total nearly 64 million (up from 62.4 million). This reflects a growth of 5.2 million prior to the removal of 3.9 million Russia subscribers.

Paramount CEO Bob Bakish has openly discussed that the company’s goal is to hit 100 million subscribers on Paramount+ by 2024.

For comparison, following Q2, Netflix remained the world’s largest streaming service with 220.67 million subscribers. At the end of Q1, Disney+ reported 129.8M subscribers and Hulu had 45.3M across its on-demand and live TV platforms; Disney will update those totals next week. HBO Max — which will report Q2 information later on Thursday — most recently reported having 76.8 million subscribers. Neither Amazon nor Apple reports specific subscriber totals for Prime Video or Apple TV+ respectively.

In addition to Paramount’s SVOD services, the conglomerate’s free ad-supported TV (FAST) service Pluto TV saw its global user base to nearly 70 million monthly active users during Q2, up from the 68M that the company reported following the first quarter.

Q2 was a busy period for Paramount+ as the service continued to expand both internationally and in terms of the titles available in its library. In June, the streamer launched in South Korea and U.K. and Ireland with plans to expand into Austria, France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland in the second half of 2022.

“This year will be monumental for our streaming strategy as we accelerate our global ambitions, rapidly expanding Paramount+ in Europe beginning with the UK, Italy, Germany, France and more by the end of this year and debut in Asia with South Korea in June, followed by India in 2023,” Paramount Global’s president and CEO of international networks, studios, and streaming Raffaele Annecchino said earlier this year. “With an already expansive global footprint and a strong, long-term market-by-market strategy, we are well-poised to continue our positive momentum.”

As the streamer moves into additional overseas markets, it has also made deals to expand the foreign offerings on the platform. In June, Paramount+ announced plans to ramp up its international offerings by producing 150 original shows and movies by 2025.

Paramount has also apparently learned from the mistake of letting “Yellowstone” stream on a competing service and locked down the rights to break out comedy “Ghosts.”

In addition to international expansion and keeping linear hits on the in-house streamer, Paramount+ has also kept a steady flow of content coming to the platform by keeping the window between a film’s debut in theaters and on streaming as short as possible… at least in most cases.

Though the company has not yet officially announced when “Top Gun: Maverick” will land on Paramount+, the studio has remained committed to its 45-day window to bring films from cinemas to streaming.