While the news about rapidly rising Disney Plus subscribers has been at the forefront of our minds, not much has been said about the numbers for Apple TV+.
This is because the streaming service hasn’t revealed much about the numbers, but according to an analytics company cited by the Wall Street Journal, the total count for the last quarter of 2019 places Apple TV+ with 33.6 million subscribers.
Surprisingly, not only is this more than Hulu – it’s more than Disney Plus currently has, too. Apple hasn’t provided a lot of commentary on the statistics, only saying that they have been ‘thrilled’ with the count.
To compare the numbers, Hulu has 31.8 million subscribers, while Disney+ has 23.2 million. Some critics will be quick to point out that many Apple TV+ subscribers will have been set up with the service due to the one year free trial which comes with the purchase of an eligible iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, iPad touch or Mac – that is, a purchase which comes after September 10, 2019.
It’s possible that numbers will drop once the free trial expires, so perhaps in 12 months the total subscriber count could be telling an entirely different story.
Furthermore, Disney+ launched halfway through the quarter, so there will likely be a huge rise in numbers for this quarter, followed by another surge when the platform launches in Europe over the coming months.
