More than 100,000 people have paid to go behind the Times and Sunday Times' new online paywalls but visits to their websites have fallen by about 87%.
Times Online was registering about 21 million unique users a month to its front page earlier this year but the figure fell to 2.7 million last month.
The papers said in addition 100,000 people had a joint subscription to read the newspapers in print and digitally.
Times editor James Harding said the papers were "hugely encouraged".
Publishers of the Times and Sunday Times have revealed for the first time how many people are paying to read their newspapers online or on mobiles. They said that figures stood at 105,000.
The subscription figures have been eagerly awaited by publishers and advertisers since the two papers went behind an online paywall four months ago.
The figure for unique users for their websites comprises two million for the Times and 700,000 for the Sunday Times.
BBC media correspondent Torin Douglas said many people in the industry had been sceptical about the paywall move, and that there would be intense analysis and debate over the significance of the figures.