Disney Hides End-of-2025 Subscriber Numbers

Following Netflix’s lead, Disney appears to have given up on sharing subscriber numbers moving forward. To end September 2025, the company had 196 million subscribers between Disney+ and Hulu. Now, we’re only getting revenue numbers.

Disney said its SVOD services combined for $5.3 billion in revenue in the final 3 months of 2025. That’s up 11% from the same time in 2024.

That revenue number does not include Disney’s live TV operations: Hulu + Live TV and Fubo.

Hanging over all of this is the near-imminent closure of Hulu as a standalone streaming service. As we write this article, we’re one hour from Disney’s earnings call, when CEO Bob Iger may provide further clarity on the timeline for that.

Disney’s streaming picture has become murkier in recent months as ESPN now has its own standalone app offering the full live, linear ESPN feed. Some live TV subscribers get that for free. A service like DIRECTV offers Disney+ and Hulu free as part of some of its bundles.

Disney also increased its prices in October, helping to juice Disney’s SVOD revenue but possibly taking a chunk of subscribers away. We also don’t have a full picture of the fallout from the company’s short-lived suspension of Jimmy Kimmel – some sources believe it may have cost the company 1.7 million subscribers.

Adding another wrench into the gears, CEO Bob Iger says he plans to step down this year. You may remember he previously tiptoed out the door during the early days of his successor, Bob Chapek. But it wasn’t a clean break. Iger stuck around for a while, interfering with Chapek’s leadership. And when Chapek was left to his own devices, he made so many bad decisions, Iger came out of retirement to return to the throne.

At 74, Iger may not have another comeback in him. Bloomberg reports the next CEO will be Josh D’Amaro, current Chairman of Disney Experiences.

Disney’s stock is down more than 37% in the last 5 years. Wish we could say the same for their theme park tickets or their streaming prices. (The Pirates & Princesses Blog estimates a 7-day trip to Disney World for a family of 4 costs $4,500-$6,500.)

It’s possible Disney never again shares how many subscribers each of its streaming services has. We stopped getting ESPN+ numbers almost a year ago. When companies do this, it signals that growth has slowed tremendously, and all that’s left to do is squeeze the audience with higher prices, pushing them to the more lucrative ad-supported tiers.