As Netflix took the world by storm in the late 2000s, Disney was playing the long game, waiting for the right moment to strike the streaming market.And it’s paid off, says “Streaming” columnist NICK OVERALL. 

THE king of streaming has been dethroned. 

Disney Plus, in just under three years since it launched, now has more subscribers than Netflix.

It comes after an insanely lucrative quarter that saw Mickey Mouse’s streaming service draw in 14.4 million new users, bringing its international subscriber base to a whopping 221 million people and overtaking Netflix’s 220 million.

It is remarkable that the platform has broken the record only 33 months after it first hit TV screens. For comparison, it took Netflix more than 15 years to reach similar numbers.

So how did Disney beat Netflix at its own game?

The conveyor belt pumping out the prequels, sequels and spin-offs to some of Disney’s biggest franchises is moving so fast at this point it’s unstoppable.

Whether it’s Pixar, Marvel or “Star Wars”, every month Disney Plus boasts new instalments in the world’s most popular fictional universes.

“Lightyear” is the latest flick to get the treatment. It’s the spin-off to the beloved 1995 classic “Toy Story” and the latest example that Disney’s $US7.4 billion purchase of Pixar from Apple in 2006 has more than paid off.

The buyout was one of the first moves in a master plan. While in the late 2000s Netflix began to take the world by storm, Disney was playing the long game, waiting for the right moment to strike the streaming market.

The company saw the potential of Marvel after the success of 2008’s “Iron Man” and snapped up the comic-book franchise in a $US4 billion deal. 

Nobody at the time could have predicted what the Marvel cinematic universe would become 14 years later.

Almost every character in the franchise is getting their own TV show or movie on Disney Plus now. The latest Marvel offering, “I am Groot”, spends five episodes telling the story of the walking and talking baby tree from “Guardians of the Galaxy”, a minor character that serves as little more than a plushie-selling machine.

There’s also the company’s chokehold over “Star Wars” since its $US4 billion purchase of the galaxy far, far away in 2012.

Even after five new “Star Wars” films in the decade since the acquisition, it would seem fatigue isn’t setting in.

“Obi-Wan Kenobi”, Disney’s most recent TV show in the space-faring franchise, broke the record for their most watched original series to date when it premiered in May.

One day the debate about which “Star Wars” movie to show kids first won’t just be between the originals or the prequels. 

Perhaps kids might instead wish to start with the prequel series that takes place before the prequel movie, which is actually a sequel to the original “Star Wars” prequels. 

No, I didn’t make that up. The show is called “Andor”. It comes out in September. 

A year before Disney Plus launched in 2019, they’d secure their ace in the hole with their purchase of 20th Century Fox for $US71 billion, granting them access to television hits like “The Simpsons”, “Family Guy” and “Glee” among many others.

With all that content ready to go as a foundation, when Disney Plus finally hit the market the master plan went off without a hitch. It’s now replaced Netflix as streaming’s top dog. The mouse’s patience has well and truly paid off.

Despite the success, Disney Plus will be introducing ads to the platform in the near future following Netflix’s announcement they’ll be doing the same thing in early 2023.

Disney will slyly bump up their current monthly fee by three bucks for those who don’t want to deal with the ads.

For subscribers happy to put up with the interruptions, they’ll get to stay on their current plan of $7.99. To get rid of the ads, subscribers will have to agree to increase their fee.

One can see it already. While families jump on the couch and turn on the newest Marvel movie, there’ll be an ad already playing for next month’s just before it starts. Cha-ching.