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Netflix added a report 19mn subscribers within the fourth quarter as viewers flocked to stream the brand new instalment of Squid Sport and dwell sporting occasions together with a much-hyped boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul.
The rise meant Netflix had 301mn whole subscribers on the finish of 2024, up 15 per cent from a 12 months earlier and better than the 293mn anticipated by Wall Road. Its shares surged greater than 13 per cent in after-hours buying and selling.
Netflix mentioned it should elevate costs within the US, Canada, Portugal and Argentina. The most well-liked US plan will rise by $2.50 a month to $17.99, whereas its least expensive advertising-supported tier within the US will rise by $1 to $7.99 a month.
“[Netflix] is now flexing its muscular tissues by adjusting costs given its far stronger and diversified programming slate in comparison with rivals,” mentioned Paolo Pescatore, an analyst at PP Foresight.
The streaming pioneer made an enormous push into dwell sporting occasions within the fourth quarter, with the boxing match between Tyson and Paul attracting 65mn streams worldwide. On Christmas Day it streamed a pair of Nationwide Soccer League video games, one in every of which featured Beyoncé as a halftime performer, that reached 24mn viewers every. Netflix additionally debuted the second season of Squid Sport, which had reached a record-breaking 68mn views in its first week.
“We enter 2025 with robust momentum, coming off a 12 months with report web (subscriber) additions and having re-accelerated progress,” the corporate wrote in a letter to shareholders.
It added that whereas the enterprise stays “intensely aggressive”, it doesn’t have the “distractions” of getting to handle the decline of tv networks that its rivals on the conventional Hollywood studios are dealing with.
Income was $10.2bn within the fourth quarter, and the corporate raised its income steerage for this 12 months by $500mn, up as a lot as 14 per cent from 2024. Earnings per share greater than doubled to $4.27 from $2.11 a 12 months in the past, and working earnings surpassed $2bn, up 52 per cent.
That is the final time Netflix will report quarterly subscriber figures, which have been intently watched by traders for years. However it mentioned it will proceed to launch the numbers “as we cross key milestones”.
Its subscriber base has surged since launching a crackdown on password sharing in Could 2023, which pushed the shares up greater than 80 per cent in 2024. However the inventory has had a bumpy begin in 2025.
Wall Road has been bracing for subscription progress to sluggish because the preliminary enhance from the initiative wanes. However Netflix is making an enormous guess on dwell occasions to attract in new subscribers, and this month it debuted its weekly streams of WWE Uncooked — a part of a 10-year take care of the wrestling leisure group.
Executives have mentioned the dwell occasions would assist ship audiences that advertisers crave. The adverts enterprise has had a uneven begin since its introduction within the autumn of 2022, given weak spot within the sector.
“A high precedence in 2025 is to enhance our providing for advertisers in order that we will considerably develop our promoting income,” it mentioned within the shareholder letter.
