According to its first quarter earnings report, which was recently revealed, AT&T has managed to achieve 40 million subscribers on HBO Max two years ahead of schedule. Globally, there are over 60 million subscribers on HBO in total.

This is a big jump compared to numbers revealed in September of last year, where the subscriber count for the streaming service was 28.7 million – with 8.6 million being ‘activated’.

For those not in the know, this industry lingo refers to a subscriber who has downloaded the app, then either signed up of their own accord, upgraded an existing subscription, or claimed a free one using a promotion. Now, there are around 17.2 million subscribers who are considered to be ‘activated’.

In comparison, Disney Plus managed to receive over 86 million subscribers in just over a year. However, the subscription for Disney is much less than HBO, and it wasn’t attached to the rebranding of an existing service – which led to much confusion to many subscribers who were transferred to a new platform.

AT&T has assigned its success with subscribers to its decision to release its Warner Bros movies directly onto HBO Max on the same day they come out in theaters. Although this move was seen as controversial when it was first announced, it is now directly being described as the reason for their jump in signups.

To be precise, CEO John Stankey said in a statement: ‘The release of Wonder Woman 1984 helped drive our domestic HBO Max and HBO subscribers to more than 41 million, a full two years faster than our initial forecast.’