As of the first quarter of 2025, Hulu's SVOD only service reportedly generated an average monthly revenue of 12.52 U.S. dollars per paying subscriber. The figure recorded in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal year was slightly lower, at 12.29 U.S. dollars in revenue per paying Hulu user.

Introduction

Hulu Statistics: Since its founding in 2008, Hulu has grown into one of the most popular sites and services available. Through it, viewers consume a very broad variety of content, including on-demand video and live television services. In 2024, Hulu will continue to exercise these emerging channels about its viewer-based needs and broader competitive trends in digital entertainment.

The article examines thoroughly the new Hulu statistics, such as the subscriber base and revenue generation for its content and market position.

In the first quarter of 2025, the Walt Disney Company reported that Hulu had 53.6 million paid subscribers, up from 49.7 million in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal year. Hulu has several pricing plans to cater to varying consumer preferences, with the most basic option including ads costing 9.99 dollars per month and the priciest monthly subscription package fixed at 18.99 dollars (without ads) as of October 2024. In addition to that, many bundle options are available, including access to live TV, as well as to Disney+ and ESPN+. What is Hulu best known for? Hulu is often best known for the dystopian TV show “The Handmaid’s Tale” based on Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name or the comedy mystery series “Only Murders in the Building,” starring Selena Gomez. The shows have received a significant amount of media attention since their releases, and were among the TV shows with the highest amount of Emmy Awards nominations in the last few years. Hulu's history Content aside, Hulu’s past dealings with other media companies have also been a frequent point of discussion. The company was founded in 2007 and its board has included American investment firms as well as representatives from stakeholders Disney, Fox, and Comcast. A lot changed in early 2019 when The Walt Disney Company acquired 21st Century Fox, a deal which generated enormous online buzz and which gave Disney a 60 percent majority stake in Hulu. Shortly afterwards, multinational conglomerate AT&T sold back its 10 percent stake to Disney. Finally, Disney announced in November 2023 to purchase Comcast's 33 percent stake in Hulu. Disney’s newest streaming service, Disney+, is available as part of a bundle including ESPN+ (for sports fans) and of course, Hulu, which will cater to more mature audiences whilst Disney+ takes care of the family-friendly content.

The operating income of Disney's direct-to-consumer business, including the streaming services Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+, amounted to 293 million U.S. dollars in the first quarter of 2025, marking a significant growth from the same quarter of the previous year. Like other U.S.-based media companies, Disney has struggled to make positive profits with it streaming division. As a result, the company announced cost-cutting measures, such as layoffs, reducing programming costs, as well as increasing subscription prices. In addition, the company formed a joint venture with Reliance Industries Limited in November 2024, transferring majority control of its Star India business, including Disney+ Hotstar.

In the fourth quarter of 2024, Amazon Prime Video was the most popular subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service in the United States with a market share of 22 percent, based on the users' interest in adding content to their watch lists of certain streaming platforms. Netflix followed closely with a market share of 21 percent. Subscription streaming market – a money-losing business? While subscription streaming platforms increased their subscriber bases in the years 2020 and 2021 due to the measures taken during the COVID-19 pandemic, 2022 and 2023 saw services such as Netflix and Disney+ lose a substantial number of customers. Furthermore, the direct-to-consumer (DTC) businesses of large media companies are struggling to turn a profit. Paramount, for example, reported a loss of 1.7 billion U.S. dollars for its streaming services in 2023. Streaming companies take action In order to compensate for subscriber and income losses, streaming companies implemented several strategies, such as launching more profitable ad-supported tiers, cracking down on credential sharing, laying off thousands of employees, and spending less on content. The Walt Disney Company was already able to increase DTC profits recently. Its cost-cutting measures include layoffs and savings in content spending by reducing content produced and removing TV shows and movies from its streaming services.

In 2024, the Walt Disney Company generated a revenue of nearly 34.2 billion U.S. dollars with its parks, and experiences, an increase of around 4.9 percent from the year before. The company's biggest revenue source was its entertainment segment, which generated revenues of over 41 billion U.S. dollars in 2024. This marked a growth of 1.4 percent year-on-year. The total assets of the Walt Disney Company amounted to more than 196 billion U.S. dollars in 2024.Additional info: Walt Disney Company's revenue by operating segmentIn 2023, the Walt Disney Company generated over 19 percent of its revenue through its sports segment which includes the ESPN properties. This revenue stream brought the company 17 billion U.S. dollars that year.The experiences segment was the second-largest revenue source, generating a total of 32.6 billion U.S. dollars. It is a very successful segment – Disney’s parks take the top spots in the ranking of the most visited amusement and theme parks worldwide. The Magic Kingdom Park in Bay Lake, Florida, ranked first in 2022 with 17 million visitors. The largest revenue stream – with over 40 billion U.S. dollars – was the entertainment business. This segment includes linear networks, direct-to-consumer (DTC) business and content sales and licensing. The DTC operations comprise of the company's streaming services such as Disney+, Disney+ Hotstar, and Hulu. This subsegment brought in more than five billion U.S. dollars in the last quarter of 2023.