23% of Paid Disney+ Subscribers Do Not Use the Streaming Service

A recent report by Self Financial revealed that 23% of Disney’s 57.8 million North American paid subscribers aren’t actually using the streaming service. This finding is based on a survey of 1,070 Americans, many of whom are already subscribed to platforms like Netflix or Disney+.

Interestingly, this news comes at a time when Disney+ is increasing its monthly subscription fees for the third time in three years, for both standalone and bundled options with Hulu and ESPN+. There are also price hikes for Hulu to take into account.

Among the respondents in the survey, ESPN+ emerged as the most neglected paid subscription service, with 25.8% of users not utilizing it in the past month. However, only 5.8% of participants held a paid ESPN+ subscription, distinct from the recently launched ESPN Unlimited service. Hulu followed closely behind, with 25.7% of users leaving their subscriptions untouched.

The findings also revealed that a significant portion of respondents (46.5%) shared their passwords despite recent crackdowns at platforms like Netflix and Disney+. What’s interesting is that this percentage is actually lower than in 2024, suggesting that password-sharing habits are evolving.

The main motivations for sharing logins were to save money and to deal with rising subscription costs. This shows that many people see shared accounts as a way to make these services more affordable.

Disney has been offering more perks to its direct-to-consumer customers, including discounted bundle pricing and premiering new Disney movies on the platform. These efforts are clearly aimed at enhancing the value of the subscription and giving customers more reasons to stay engaged.