Disney+ hit 94.9 million million subscribers at the turn of the year, the company has announced.

The figure - accurate as of January 2 - represents a significant increase on the 86.8 million reported a month earlier at Disney's infamous investor day, and includes an uptick in subscribers expected due to the release of Soul on the service on Christmas Day.

Disney+ is still trailing the 203.7 million subscribers achieved by market leader Netflix, although reaching almost half of that figure in just 15 months beats all of the company's initial expectations.

The latest numbers come ahead of the introduction of price rises in almost all markets starting this month, although the service is launching multiple new original series, including new spinoffs from Marvel and the Star Wars franchise at a steady rate for the rest of the year.

UK subscribers will also get access to a new content channel called 'Star' from February 23, offering thousands of hours of TV and movie library titles.

> In Full: Every TV series and film launching on new Disney+ channel Star