• by Wayne Friedman , February 6, 2020

While Disney has set a target of 60 million to 90 million global subscribers by 2024 for Disney+, a third-party media researcher believes the new and rapidly growing premium video service will go much higher around that time.

Digital TV Research estimates Disney+ will get to 126 million worldwide subscribers by 2025 -- which would be 53% of Netflix’s expected global subscriber total of 238 million. Currently, Netflix has 167 million global subscribers, with 61 million in the U.S.

The media researcher estimates that at the end of this year, Netflix will have more 186 million users, adding 51 million global subscribers between 2020 and 2025.

Bob Iger, chairman/chief executive officer of Walt Disney, has said two-thirds of the estimated 60 to 90 million total subscribers for Disney+ in 2024 will come from outside the United States.

Disney recently released data to show that Disney+ is at 28.6 million subscribers as of Feb. 3.

Digital TV Research estimates Disney+ will have 40.7 million at the end of 2020 -- with initial growth coming from the U.S. Much of this will be helped from the packaging of Disney+ with ESPN+ and Hulu at a $12.99 per month package. Alone, Disney+ costs $6.99/month.

Five of the top global streaming platforms are projected to have 553 million paying subscribers in five years, up from 357 million this year -- a gain of 54%.

Netflix will have a 44% share of the 2025’s total streaming market of the top five platforms -- down from 53% at the end of this year.