Dune, The Matrix, and Succession boost US-based HBO and HBO Max subscribers to 46.8 million

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge

Over the course of a full year, the number of subscribers of the service increased by over 5 million. The fourth-quarter earnings for AT&T were shared.

HBO Max grew aggressively in ‘21, both in the U.S. and in the 45 additional markets where we launched. We are up 35% over the past 24 months and are almost a full 4 yrs ahead of the original HBO Max + HBO sub projections shared with investors prior to the launch of HBO Max. 6/x pic.twitter.com/ZgmT190PKI

— Jason Kilar (@jasonkilar) January 26, 2022

The CEO of Time Warner celebrated the success of the platform on the social networking site. He says that the subscriber count is way ahead of projections by a whole four years.

In an interview with CNBC, Kilar states that the service grew much faster than the one offered by Netflix. The platform didn't meet its forecasts for subscriber growth, reaching 221.84 million subscribers instead of 222.06 million.

The latest addition to the Matrix series, which was released in theaters and on HBO Max, was one of the most highly anticipated content last year. One day before Dune's release in theaters, the film was aired on the platform, as was the third season of Succession.

Warner Bros. has shifted away from same-day theatrical releases for its most prominent titles as it partners with HBO Max to release 10 movies this year, but none of them appear to be big-budget films. Warner Bros. films will be shown in theaters for 45 days before hitting streaming services.