'Hamilton' On Disney+ Resulted In Over Half A Million App Downloads Over The Weekend

Over the weekend, it seemed like everybody and their mother was watching the Broadway sensation Hamilton on Disney+. Since getting tickets to the historical hip-hop musical was extremely hard even before stage shows were shut down due the coronavirus pandemic, millions of people were anxious to see the show for the first time. The result was Disney+ being downloaded 513,323 times around the world over the holiday weekend.

Variety has the download numbers for Disney+ following the debut of Hamilton on July 3 thanks to to analytics from Apptopia. Disney+ was downloaded 266,084 times in the United States, which accounts for roughly half of the total downloads around the world. That's also 72.4% higher than the average number of downloads in the four weekends in June. Meanwhile, the global number of downloads was 46.6% higher than the average, and that doesn't include India or Japan since Disney+ is delivered through other apps in those territories.

However, what this doesn't tell us is how many new Disney+ subscriptions were the result of Hamilton. Though those download numbers are impressive, they're not necessarily indicative of the same number of new subscriptions. A new app download could easily just be a result of a household simply not having the app on one of their streaming devices, and someone with a preexisting subscription could have just signed into their app in order to watch Hamilton with friends and family.

Even so, Disney was hoping to reel in a bunch of new subscribers in July with Hamilton. They even stopped offering their seven-day free trial in the middle of June, so users would have to sign up for at least one month of the service in order to watch Hamilton. Even if they did get a decent number of subscribers from Hamilton, the more important question is how many of them will stick around for more after they've already watched Hamilton a bunch of times.

Though the library of Disney-owned titles available on Disney+ is impressive, their library of originals still leaves something to be desired. While The Mandalorian was a huge hit that satisfied plenty of Star Wars fans, Disney+ doesn't have any other hit originals that justify spending $6.99 each month when The Mandalorian doesn't have new episodes. Though recent documentary shows like Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian and Into the Unknown: Making Frozen 2 have been fantastic additions, it still doesn't feel like enough to entice the average viewer to stay subscribed all year long.

Anyway, you can watch Hamilton on Disney+ now, and then go watch Splash without as many butt shots.