Disney+ could close out 2019 with a seriously impressive 20 million subscribers

As much as everyone is talking about Disney+, which is a testament to how deeply it’s become embedded in popular culture (so much so that it’s become the subject of everything from Twitter memes to an entire episode of South Park), it’s hard to believe Disney only launched its new streaming offering about a month ago. Actually, less than a month ago, as of the time of this writing.

The Disney+ exclusive series that’s far and away gotten the most buzz so far is, as everyone knows by now, The Mandalorian — the final episode of which will arrive on the service on December 27. That will close out December as well as wrap up 2019 for the streamer, which will also coincide with a big milestone for Disney’s still awfully young service: Credit Suisse is predicting that by the end of this month, Disney will have roped in a whopping 20 million subscribers.

That’s an awfully darn impressive number for such a new service to have started from zero, as we said, about a month ago — and in a space dominated by the likes of Netflix, no less. Not only that, but the estimate above is actually an increase over the analysts’ previous expectation that Disney would have signed up 14.3 million subscribers by year’s end.

“For Disney, we are raising our Disney+ estimate once again to 20.0m as of December 31st from 14.3m due to app downloads settling out at a reasonable level and Verizon indicating Disney+ sign-ups have come in well ahead of expectations (though we left bottom-line estimates unchanged),” Credit Suisse analysts said in a note Saturday, as reported by CNBC.

However, the prediction also forecasts a bit of a slow start to the new year for the service. After that, the analysts expect numbers to pick back up again once Disney+ launches in Europe at the end of March, and then they’re looking for another surge once it launches in Latin America in the fall. “As with our prior increase, we assume the higher Disney+ subscribers and revenue is offset by management spending more aggressively behind the successful launch,” the analysts continued.

Disney+, by the numbers:

• A subscription costs $6.99/month
• A full-year subscription is discounted, at $69.99 annually (versus about $83 if you’re on the monthly plan)
• A Disney+ bundle that includes Hulu and ESPN+ costs $12.99/month.
• Head here to start a free 7-day trial.