Disney+ has already hit 50 million paid subscribers worldwide, less than six months after launch. After seemingly conquering the movie industry over the last decade thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star Wars, Pixar, live-action remakes, and more, Disney decided to get involved in the streaming wars (just like many other studios competing with Netflix). With a catalog full of beloved classics and some high-profile origins, like The Mandalorian, Disney+ launched in late 2019 with a substantial following.

Shortly after the launch of Disney+, it was revealed that over 10 million people already subscribed to the service just one day after the domestic launch. Thanks to free subscriptions from Verizon and other workarounds, though, it was not clear just how big the Disney+ audience actually was. In the months since, Disney has continued to roll out its service in countries around the world. And even though they haven't had any original content that has the same appeal of The Mandalorian's first season, they have continued to increase the amount of content that Disney+ can offer subscribers, and it has paid off.

Related: Disney+: Every New Movie & TV Show Coming In April 2020

Disney announced today that Disney+ has surpassed 50 million paid subscribers around the world. The milestone comes shortly after the service launched in UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, and Switzerland. Disney+ also recently went live in India and the country already accounts for roughly 8 million of the 50 million subscribers Disney is reporting now. Here's what Kevin Mayer, Chairman of Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer & International, said about the achievement in the press release:

We’re truly humbled that Disney+ is resonating with millions around the globe, and believe this bodes well for our continued expansion throughout Western Europe and into Japan and all of Latin America later this year. Great storytelling inspires and uplifts, and we are in the fortunate position of being able to deliver a vast array of great entertainment rooted in joy and optimism on Disney+.

Disney plus Mandalorian

Although Disney+'s 50 million subscribers pale in comparison to the 161 million global subscribers Netflix can boast, the speed at which Disney+ has grown is still surprising, even for Disney. When the service was about to launch, Disney projected that it would have between 60-90 million subscribers by the end of 2024. They are miraculously only 10 million subscribers shy of that baseline already and could reach that milestone as Disney+ becomes available in more countries over the course of 2020. What makes these figures all the more impressive is that Disney's nearly doubled the subscriber count of Disney+ in the last two months, as they reported 28 million subscribers in February.

Even though the substantial increase in Disney+'s subscribers has more to do with the service being widely available, it is possible that coronavirus could be partially responsible for this rise. With people around the world in quarantine, many may have turned to Disney+ to help pass some time. The early releases of Frozen 2 and Onward probably didn't hurt either. Disney has already announced that Artemis Fowl will now debut on Disney+ at an unconfirmed date and that other movies could follow suit.

If Disney+ continues to grow at this rapid pace, Disney should be well-positioned to see their biggest pieces of exclusive content thrive in the future. The studio previously announced that season 2 of The Mandalorian will debut in October, while the first MCU content was also scheduled for a 2020 launch, with The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in August and WandaVision in December. Even if these releases are delayed now, Disney+'s subscription count will put them in front of more eyes than expected whenever they do drop.

MORE: Marvel's Disney+ Content Is Better In The UK

Source: Disney