Disney Officially Won the 2024 Streaming War
Every week, MickeyBlog chronicles the weekly streaming ratings, which is admittedly a kind of weird thing to do.
You’re here for theme park news and exciting updates from our incredible reporters. We know this and are happy to oblige.


Photo:visitorlando.com
But Disney is a big company with its fingers in lots of pies. So, we must keep an eye on those as well.
Thanks to streaming ratings, we deduced the popularity of Moana and Zootopia long before Disney announced a sequel.


Photo: Disney
Now, the company has done something even more remarkable.
Here’s how Disney officially won the year in streaming.



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Spoiler: Disney had the most-streamed program overall and the most popular movie. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Bluey Triumphant


Wall Street Journal
On January 24th, Nielsen published its charts for the last year in streaming.
So, we know which programs consumers streamed the most in 2024, and the data will tell you a story.


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This is a story MickeyBlog tracked all year. In November 2022, Disney’s streaming services performed so poorly that a CEO got fired.
While nobody misses Bob Chapek in that role, the fact that it happened speaks volumes about Disney’s plight.


Photo: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg
The company was losing a fortune on streaming. We’re talking billions of dollars each year.
Not coincidentally, Disney theme parks didn’t announce major expansion projects during Chapek’s tenure.


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Similarly, Disney couldn’t do much during Bob Iger’s first 18 months back on the job. There was no money.
The story changed in late 2023, and the reason why is that Disney streaming stopped being a financial lodestone.


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So, we’ve learned to care very much about how Disney performs on streaming. Also, we owe a lot of gratitude to Bluey.
In calendar 2023, Bluey was the second-most streamed program with 43.9 billion viewer minutes.


Photo: Ludo Studios
The popular children’s series somehow elevated its success in 2024.
Bluey was THE most popular streaming program of the year, earning 55.6 billion viewer minutes.


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Nielsen added an awards feature to its annual list. Bluey claimed the most prestigious title as the top program on streaming.
According to Nielsen, “43% of (‘Bluey’s) massive viewing total (is) attributable to kids 2-11.”


Photo: Bluey
Yes, that means more than half the viewing audience is over the age of 11. Plenty of adults are nodding right now.
Also, the Bluey phenomenal is speeding up, not slowing down.


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The show gained nearly 27 percent more viewer minutes in 2024.
Disney is adding Bluey characters to its theme parks and cruise ships, and now you know the reason why.
Disney Cracks the Math


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Netflix just posted one of its best quarters ever and dominated headlines due to its jaw-dropping success.
Given this fact, you’d expect Netflix titles to top the streaming charts…and in some ways, they do.


Photographer: Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
Nielsen’s new “awards” are really just invented categories like “Top New Original Unscripted” and “Top New Original Drama/Comedy Series.”
Since Nielsen lists two nominees per section, there are six possible entrants.


Deadline
Netflix claimed five on the list, while Amazon garnered arguably the most impressive win for Fallout.
However, those categories are for new content, which actually doesn’t perform as well.


Photo: Getty Images/Ringer illustration
That’s part of the math problem Disney solved. Its secret sauce is Acquired series, legacy shows consumers prefer to binge-watch.
The proof is in the ratings. Here’s the link again, in case you didn’t click the first time.


Photo:cnet.com
Please compare the Overall Top Ten on streaming with the Acquired Top Ten. Do you see it?
Yes, those are the exact same top ten titles. In other words, the top ten acquired programs are also the ones streamed the most.


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This isn’t news to me, nor is it news to Disney. Not coincidentally, Disney+ and Hulu have dramatically scaled back new scripted programming.
Justifying this content financially is challenging to do. To wit, you know how I just praised Fallout?


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The video game-based series earned nearly 12 billion streaming minutes, but it cost a small fortune.
Glance at the Originals chart, and you’ll notice that Hulu’s Futurama slots right behind Fallout.


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My beloved Futurama gained 11.75 billion viewer minutes…and for a fraction of the price.
That’s part of the reason why Disney has done so well.
The other reason is that Disney has cornered the market on catalog titles.
Disney Dominates Overall


Credit: ABC
Seriously, here are the top five most streamed programs of 2025:
- Bluey – 55.62 billion viewer minutes
- Grey’s Anatomy – 47.85 billion viewer minutes
- Family Guy – 42.44 billion viewer minutes
- Bob’s Burgers – 36.8 billion viewer minutes
- NCIS – 35.91 billion viewer minutes


Image Credit: ABC
Technically, multiple streaming services host Grey’s Anatomy and NCIS.
I’d argue that Hulu isn’t the most popular format for either one, as each is available on Netflix.


Criminal Minds
Still, all five of those programs are available on Disney streaming services, as are two others in the top ten.
Those titles are Law & Order: SVU (28.72 billion) and Criminal Minds (28.4 billion).


Photo: E! Online
Overall, these seven titles plus Futurama earned 287.49 billion viewer minutes. That’s more than four billion hours.
In other words, everyone on planet Earth streamed half an hour of Disney programming among those eight titles.


Photo: The New York Post
For that to happen, they had to subscribe to Disney’s streaming services.
In many instances, those people watched ads during the shows, as the ad tier is cheaper for consumers.
So, Disney enticed customers to pay for streaming. Then, the company sold advertising to these same customers.
Not coincidentally, Disney revenue increased quite a bit last year and is poised for double-digit growth in fiscal 2025.


DCL
Also, Disney can suddenly afford a bunch of new cruise ships, themed lands, and E-ticket attractions.
Thus, we should all be happy for Disney’s success.
But Wait! There’s More!


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Somehow, the exceptional news didn’t stop there, as the Disney Flywheel paid additional dividends.
Disney didn’t just claim the most popular program on streaming and the top five overall.



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The company also managed the most popular movie on streaming in 2024. And yes, it was Moana.
You can understand why, as Disney started the year by announcing a previously unknown Moana sequel.


Photo: Disney Lorcana
So, fans rewatched the original in anticipation of its successor, giving it 13 billion viewer hours. Yes, that’s more than Fallout.
Moana wasn’t the only title with that behavior, either.


This Inside Out concept art features Shame standing next to Anxiety. Photo: Reddit
Inside Out was the seventh-most streamed title of 2024, with 5.78 billion.
Two other Disney favorites, Encanto (6.61 billion) and Frozen (6.28 billion) also finished in the top ten.


Image: Pixar
So, that’s another 31.7 billion hours people spent streaming Disney content.
This behavior also paid dividends at the box office, as Inside Out 2 and Moana 2 were two of the top three blockbusters of 2024.


MOANA 2 – © 2024 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
And that’s why Disney officially won the streaming war in 2024. It had the top television show and film on streaming.
Even better, the popularity of its titles spilled over to added box office success as well.

Disney
Disney storytelling is back and quite possibly better than ever now that Iger and his team have finally solved the streaming problem.
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