Disney+ is expected to overtake Netflix and become the world’s biggest streaming platform within three years, according to new data released by The Walt Disney Company.

The platform is on track to top Netflix, as Disney+ just passed 100 million global subscribers 16 months after launching. It took Netflix a decade to reach the same number.

Taken together with subscriber numbers for the group’s ESPN+ sports platform and Hulu subscription service in the US, the surge puts Disney on track to dethrone Netflix by 2024.

Disney+ began its success story with global smash hit The Mandalorian. Disney+ executives had conservatively estimated that it would take five years to reach 90 million subscribers.

In December, an emboldened Disney tripled its target to 260 million by 2024 and doubled its content budget to around €12.5 billion, laying down its position as the third major titan in the global streaming wars.

Netflix confirmed in February that the platform had 203.7 million subscribers, while Amazon Prime Video is expected to have approximately 147 million subscribers.

Meanwhile, Netflix recently began cracking down on the sharing of account passwords. Netflix sent a message this week to some accounts with multiple users, threatening them with a service cut-off if illegally sharing passwords but offering the incentive of a free 30-day trial in certain territories. The message read: “If you don’t live with the owner of this account, you need your own account to keep watching.”

“Disney+ has obviously experienced some of the fastest growth seen from a subscription video-on-demand service; kudos to them for establishing themselves as a global force so fast,” said Richard Broughton, an Ampere Analysis analyst.

“While Disney+ is still only half the size of Netflix, it has reached that milestone in an unprecedented timescale.”

Ampere then predicted Disney+ to have more subscribers than Prime Video in 2024, and eventually overtake Netflix in 2025, considering ESPN+ and Hulu accounts for a chunk of the overall Walt Disney Company number.

Oscars frontrunner Nomadland is set to launch directly on Disney+ via the Star strand on April 30.

The film will then be released in cinemas across the UK and Ireland once they reopen, after May 17.