Disney+ beat HBO Max in subscriber gains over the Christmas holiday

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Disney+ and HBO Max both released high-profile films that were originally slated to do huge business at the domestic box office. Pixar's Soul hit the Disney+ streaming service after coming off its November theatrical release date and Warner Bros. finally saw the release of Wonder Woman 1984, which had a simultaneous launch on HBO Max and in theaters that have reopened during the pandemic. Both releases provided a boost to their respective streaming services but, in the end, initial data shows that there was one platform that came out on top.

According to a new report via "Bloomberg News",  both Soul and Wonder Woman 1984 gave their platforms a significant spike but Soul provided a larger bump for Disney+. Apptopia and Sensor Tower tallied mobile app downloads for both Disney+ and HBO Max and an estimated 2.3 million installations of the Disney+ app were registered globally following the release of Soul. This represents a 28 percent increase from the prior weekend. Meanwhile, HBO Max registered an estimated 554,000 downloads following the release of Wonder Woman 1984. While there is a clear winner in terms of raw numbers, there is more to be considered here.

First off, Disney+ is available in many countries around the world while HBO Max is only available in the U.S. This means that Disney+ had more opportunities to attract subscribers and app downloads during the Christmas weekend timeframe. These numbers also don't account for downloads and signups on smart TVs, gaming consoles, Amazon Fire TV devices, or Roku devices. This will prove to be especially important for HBO Max as the service was finally made available on Roku devices just ahead of the release of Wonder Woman 1984.

Warner Bros. also had the advantage in terms of box office. Wonder Woman 1984 had a pandemic best 3-day weekend debut of $16.7 million. That means that a certain amount of viewers who might otherwise have turned to HBO Max watched the film in theaters instead. Soul skipped a theatrical release entirely and premiered purely on Disney+ in the U.S.

Both releases do count as a win for their respective studios and there are a lot of factors in play that determines the real winner. Disney+ won the Christmas battle on paper but HBO Max shouldn't be counted out for their Wonder Woman 1984 debut as that particular service isn't available worldwide and the DCEU movie also had a theatrical footprint that also affected the true potential of the HBO Max launch.

Did YOU expect Disney+ to beat HBO Max over the Christmas holiday? Which film was a priority for YOU over the holiday? Soul? Wonder Woman 1984? Leave your responses in the comment section below!