By the end of 2021, HBO Max and HBO had a combined global subscriber base of 73.8 million, well ahead of the company's estimates of 70 million to 73 million.

This and other figures were released by WarnerMedia parent ATT this morning, ahead of CFO Pascal Desroches' participation at a Citibank investment conference.

HBO Max premiered in May 2020, and it started off to a poor start before gaining traction. The streaming service, which is available to paying HBO users at no additional cost, began rolling out globally in the summer of 2021 and included a lower-cost, ad-supported tier. Following some initial branding confusion due to the presence of other HBO-branded streaming apps on the market, HBO Max secured distribution with Roku and Apple TV.

Due to existing distribution agreements with Sky, HBO Max is still years away from entering the important markets of the United Kingdom, Italy, and Germany. Once WarnerMedia merges with Discovery and breaks from ATT, it is likely to launch an international push, pending regulatory approval later this year.

The streaming service has profited from Warner Bros.' day-and-date film releases, particularly the fourth-quarter releases of Dune and The Matrix: Revolutions. The release pattern, which was implemented as a precautionary measure, is not anticipated to last, but it has aided in the onboarding of a number of new customers.

In addition to the streaming figures, ATT announced that it had 3.2 million postpaid phone net additions, the most in more than a decade.

After breaking new ground in the entertainment industry in 2018 with the $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner, ATT announced last year that WarnerMedia will be spun off. Last year, the corporation completed a loss-making excursion into pay-TV by spinning off DirecTV into a separate organization funded by private equity firm TPG.