It feels like every other week there’s a new hashtag trending on X (formerly Twitter) telling everyone to "Delete Disney." Honestly, it’s hard to keep up. One day it’s about a price hike, the next it’s a political firestorm, and by Friday people are mad about a favorite show getting the axe. But if you actually look at the hard numbers—the stuff Disney has to tell Wall Street so they don’t get sued—the reality of how many people canceled Disney is way more complicated than a viral hashtag makes it seem.
Last year was a bit of a rollercoaster for the Mouse House. In the final three months of 2024, Disney+ watched about 700,000 subscribers walk out the door. That sounds like a lot, right? In isolation, sure. But when you’re sitting on a pile of over 120 million global users, 700,000 is basically a rounding error. It’s what the industry calls "churn." People sign up to binge The Mandalorian, realize they’re paying $15 a month for a service they only use twice a year, and hit that cancel button.
Then 2025 hit, and things got weirdly specific.
The September Spike: Politics and Wallets
If you want to know the exact moment when the "cancel" movement actually gained teeth, you have to look at September 2025. That was a rough month for the PR team in Burbank. Basically, Disney found itself caught in a pincer movement. On one side, they announced a massive price hike—taking Disney+ with ads up to $11.99 and the ad-free tier to a whopping $18.99. On the other side, they temporarily suspended Jimmy Kimmel after some controversial political comments, which ticked off a huge segment of their liberal audience.
Talk about a bad week.
According to data from Antenna, a firm that tracks these things pretty closely, the cancellation rate for Disney+ literally doubled in September 2025. It went from a steady 4% to about 8%. In human terms? That’s roughly 3 million people who decided they were done.
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- The Price Factor: Most folks are just broke. With the cost of eggs and gas, paying nearly $20 for a streaming service feels like a luxury.
- The Kimmel Backlash: This was a rare "left-leaning" boycott. Usually, Disney gets heat from the right for being "woke," but the Kimmel suspension saw actors like Mark Ruffalo and organizations like the ACLU breathing down their necks.
- Content Fatigue: Let’s be real—how many Marvel spin-offs can one person actually watch before they need a break?
Why the numbers don't always drop
Here’s the kicker: even when 3 million people canceled, Disney still reported they were "optimistic." Why? Because while people were leaving, others were joining. During that same chaotic September, Disney+ actually pulled in about 2.18 million new subscribers.
Streaming is like a leaky bucket. As long as you’re pouring water in faster than it’s leaking out the bottom, you’re technically winning. By the end of 2025, the global subscriber count had stabilized around 132 million. They lost people in the U.S., but they’re growing like crazy in international markets where the brand is still "new" and exciting.
The "Secret" Strategy: Hiding the Data
You might have noticed that it’s getting harder to find these numbers. Disney recently followed Netflix’s lead and announced they’re going to stop reporting quarterly subscriber counts starting in early 2026.
This is a massive shift.
Basically, they want investors to look at how much money they make (profitability) rather than how many people are watching (subscriber count). It’s a clever move. If you raise the price by $3 and 1 million people cancel, but 10 million people stay and pay the higher price, you’ve actually made more money even though your "popularity" went down.
Honestly, it’s kinda genius in a corporate-overlord sort of way. They aren't in the "counting heads" business anymore; they're in the "squeezing dollars" business.
What actually makes people stay?
Despite the drama, Disney has a "moat" that other services don't. It's called Bluey. And Grey's Anatomy. And The Simpsons.
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Nielsen data from late 2025 showed that even when people were shouting about boycotts, they were still streaming billions of hours of these shows. You can be as mad as you want at Bob Iger, but if your four-year-old is screaming for Bluey, you’re probably not hitting "cancel" today.
The Reality of Disney+ Show Cancellations
It’s not just the fans canceling Disney; sometimes it’s Disney canceling the fans’ favorite shows. In 2025, the ax fell hard on several projects that people actually liked.
- Goosebumps: Despite having 75 million viewing hours, it was scrapped after two seasons.
- Extraordinary: A cult favorite superhero comedy that just couldn't find a big enough audience to justify the budget.
- Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: Rumors of its demise started in March 2025, and storyboard artists eventually confirmed the production area was a "ghost town."
When Disney cancels a show, it usually triggers a fresh wave of people asking how many people canceled Disney in retaliation. It creates this feedback loop of negativity that makes the platform look like it’s in trouble, even if the bank account says otherwise.
What You Should Do If You're Thinking of Quitting
If you’re sitting there looking at your $18.99 monthly bill and wondering if it’s worth it, you aren't alone. Most experts recommend a "cycling" strategy.
Don't stay subscribed all year. Cancel. Wait for the shows you want to watch to finish their seasons, then sub for one month, binge everything, and leave again. It’s the only way to beat the "leaky bucket" system. Disney is banking on you forgetting you have the subscription. Don't give them that win.
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If you’re looking to cut costs, check if you’re eligible for the Hulu/Disney+/ESPN+ bundle through your cell phone provider or credit card. A lot of Amex and Verizon users get it for free or heavily discounted, which is why the subscriber numbers stay as high as they do.
The bottom line? Disney isn't dying, but the era of the "cheap and easy" stream is officially over. Whether you stay or go depends entirely on how much you value seeing Mickey’s latest adventures—and how much your wallet can take.
Next Steps for You
- Check your billing: Go to your Disney+ account settings right now and see exactly what you’re being charged. You might still be on a legacy plan that’s about to jump in price.
- Evaluate the Bundle: If you’re paying for Hulu and Disney+ separately, you’re throwing money away. Switch to the combined app to save about $5 a month.
- Audit your "Must-Watch" list: If you haven't opened the app in three weeks, hit cancel. You can always come back when the next Star Wars show drops.