It may have suffered some technical hiccups on launch, but Disney+ is already massively successful for Disney, which reports that over 10 million people signed up for the streaming service in its first day. Variety notes that this is well over analysts’ projections, which had Disney+ netting 8 million subscribers by the end of 2019. That number could still be accurate, however, as it’s unclear exactly how many of the 10 million-plus users will drop the service following the expiration of their free seven-day trial (all of the Werner Herzog fans, for sure). Further subscriber data will not be released until the next quarterly earnings call, which is set for February 2020, but Disney projects that the service will accumulate 60 to 90 million (!) subscribers worldwide by 2024.
Over 10 million subscribers in one day is pretty extraordinary, but there are some things that remain unknown and that Disney should address when it releases more data, such as:
- How many of these subscribers signed up just to watch the new Han and Greedo scene in A New Hope?
- How many were duplicate subscribers in a household fraught with tension and paralyzed by an inability to communicate with one another?
- How many subscribers are intellectually sophisticated children with a future in low-level white collar crime?
- Is Werner Herzog one of the 10 million Disney+ users? If so, what did he watch first? The smart money is on Toy Story, but there’s a possibility he went straight for Lizzie McGuire.