Disney has recently revealed details for its latest quarterly financial results for the second quarter of 2025, which saw Disney+ increase its subscribers globally by 1.4 million.

As part of the report, Disney Executives released some additional information about some of its recent successes, highlighting that Disney’s strategy of focusing on theatrical releases is having a multiplier effect across the company, creating franchises and generating long-term value even after they’ve left theatres. 

The Moana franchise is a perfect recent example of this.  “Moana 2” is Walt Disney Animation Studios’ biggest premiere on Disney+ since “Encanto”, garnering more than 139 million hours streamed since March 12th 2025, and earning more than $1 billion at the global box office to become one of the top three films of 2024. The first “Moana” film remains the most-streamed film on Disney+ with more than 1.4 billion hours streamed.     Disney has also been able to utilise the franchise in other experiences, including the Journey of Water attraction at Epcot, a new stage show on the Disney Treasure cruise ship, and character meet-and-greet opportunities at their parks and cruise ships.

It’s also been confirmed that many of Disney’s new and returning shows are performing well, with popular shows that first air on linear driving high levels of engagement on their streaming platforms. For example, “High Potential” is ABC’s most-watched new series in six years, and its premiere episode has reached over 30 million viewers across broadcast and streaming globally.

Meanwhile, streaming originals such as “Daredevil: Born Again”, “Paradise”, and “The Fall of Ruby Franke” have also driven strong viewership, with the premiere episodes of these titles garnering more than 7 million views each during their first few days of streaming.

Disney also highlighted how the second season of “Andor: A Star Wars Story” has just become the highest-rated Star Wars TV series or movie with a 97% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes.

While also hyping up that some of their other shows like “Bluey”, “Grey’s Anatomy”, “Family Guy”, and “Bob’s Burgers” are four of the most-streamed shows in the U.S. again this quarter.

There has been much speculation about the future of Disney’s streaming platforms, especially with their single-app experience of bringing Hulu and ESPN content into Disney+. Disney once again teased that they are moving toward a more unified streaming experience. 

Later this year, Disney is launching a brand new full-streaming version of ESPN, currently going by the codename “Flagship,” which will also be available within Disney+. The company is strengthening its sports offering for Disney+ subscribers in the U.S. with the debut of a new, exclusive SportsCenter show (SC+) on Disney+, and it’s confirmed that it’s been a success.

We are encouraged by the engagement we’ve seen as Disney+ subscribers get a taste of our sports content, and this summer we will launch another new exclusive Disney+ sports show. We look forward to sharing more details about this new program at next week’s Upfront.

Disney+ is a global streaming platform, and the company wants to continue investing in local content for its international audience that complements its strong global slate.  Disney has stated that they are focused on markets with strong growth potential – including the UK, Korea, Japan, and Mexico – and they’ve been pleased with our success so far.

It was revealed that in 2024, among the top 15 best-performing international originals released on Disney+, nine of them were Korean titles. Meanwhile, in Q2, the second season of “Gannibal” was the #1 most viewed premiere and the fastest title to reach 1 million hours streamed on Disney+ in Japan. Disney is also increasingly focused on aligning our Originals with cost-efficient third-party licensed content from both local and global partners in order to grow the breadth of their international offerings.

Last year, Disney introduced a new feature called Streams onto Disney+ in the United States. This feature featured programmed playlists of curated content such as live news and children’s programming. Its most recent addition was a Stream featuring 767 episodes of “The Simpsons,” which has quickly become the most popular Stream on Disney+ so far.  

Roger’s Take:  We’ve seen Disney restructuring itself over the last few years and its very clear that those changes are now starting to filter down, as the focus shifted from quantity to quality, so while we are seeing fewer new releases, those that are being released seemed to be performing much better. 

What do you think of Disney’s successes?  Let me know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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