Disney+ mobile app records 22 million downloads since launch - Apptopia

(Reuters) - Walt Disney Co's <DIS.N> Disney+ has been downloaded 22 million times on mobile devices since the launch of the streaming service in November, according to a report by research firm Apptopia.

Disney had earlier said its new service had witnessed "extraordinary consumer demand" on the day of the launch, reaching 10 million sign-ups.

The company now serves about 41.5 million viewers in the United States, including subscribers for its other streaming businesses, Hulu and ESPN+, compared with about 61 million for industry leader Netflix Inc <NFLX.O>.

Apptopia said Disney+ competitors, including Netflix and Amazon.com Inc's <AMZN.O> Prime Video, remain largely unaffected in terms of their performance during the same period.

While users in the United States spent about 200 million hours on the Disney+ app during the first four weeks of its launch, Netflix users have spent about 1 billion hours during the same period, according to Apptopia.

Disney+, which is presently live in U.S., Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the Netherlands, averaged 9.5 million daily active users in the past week, Apptopia said.

Separately, Disney+ topped as Google's most searched word this year in the United States.

(Reporting by Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)