Disney+ takes a page from Netflix's price-hiking book as it hits another subscriber milestone

Disney+ incredibly managed to jump from 0 to 10 million customers in just 24 hours a little over a year ago, adding more than 60 million extra paid subscribers by the end of Q3 2020, so it shouldn't come as a big surprise that the figure has gone up to a grand total of 86.8 million as of December 2.

What's perhaps a tad unexpected is the expiration of the first free 12-month trials offered by Verizon starting in November 2019 doesn't appear to have affected the phenomenal growth rate of a service initially predicted to hit between 60 and 90 million paid customers... by 2024. Of course, many Big Red subscribers may have simply forgotten about the new charge or claimed their freebie after the Disney+ launch, so a stagnation of sorts could still happen in the near future.

In the long run, however, the expectation is for the subscriber tally to continue growing to as much as 260 million and as "little" as 230 million by the end of 2024, despite the fact that the latest Walt Disney Investor Day also brought some bad news for both existing and future Disney Plus users.

Following Netflix's example, the streaming service will become slightly more expensive soon both stateside and "internationally." In the US, monthly rates will go up from $6.99 to $7.99, while yearly subscriptions are set to cost $79.99 starting March 26, 2021, compared to $69.99 at the moment. In Europe, the monthly increase will be a tad more drastic, from €6.99 to €8.99, but at the end of the day, Disney+ will remain considerably more affordable than Netflix.

The popular bundle including Disney+, ad-supported Hulu, and ESPN Plus access is also slated for a small monthly hike from $12.99 to $13.99, with a new package fetching $18.99 a month coming soon to lump Disney Plus, ESPN Plus, and the no-ads Hulu plan together.

It's hard to get too upset about this entirely predictable announcement, especially when it's being made more than three months in advance of the actual pricing changes and accompanied by not one, not two, and not three but four exciting new trailers for Marvel's upcoming Avengers-themed Disney+ original shows.