Record growth

Netflix breaks the 300 million user mark

Scene from "Squid Game"

(Bild: © 2024 Netflix, Inc.)

Netflix has broken the 300 million user mark following record growth in the past quarter. Around the release of the second season of the successful South Korean series "Squid Game", almost 19 million users were added. This was around twice as many as analysts had expected.

Netflix now has 301.6 million customer households. The largest quarterly increase to date was around 15 million at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. However, with the record, Netflix will now stop providing information on the number of users. This was already announced last year.

Netflix's revenue rose by 16% year-on-year to 10.2 billion dollars in the past quarter. At the bottom line, profit jumped from 938 million dollars a year earlier to 1.87 billion dollars. The results were well received by investors: Shares rose by more than 14 percent in after-hours trading.

Live events also attracted viewers
The second season of "Squid Game" is already the third most successful Netflix series - behind season one and the American comedy-horror series "Wednesday". At the same time, there were two live events that interested many users in the past quarter: a boxing match between former star Mike Tyson and influencer Jake Paul and the first Netflix broadcast of two NFL football league games. On average, users watch around two hours of Netflix per day.

Co-CEO Ted Sarandos also let it be known that Netflix is more interested in attracting potential new long-term customers with individual sports broadcasts rather than buying the expensive rights for an entire season of the major leagues. At the same time, Netflix will show the Women's World Cup in 2027 and 2031.

Live is good for the advertising business
The live program plays an important role for Netflix's advertising business. The streaming service, which was once completely free of advertising, is now increasingly relying on a cheaper subscription with ads. As a result, Netflix is also attracting advertising spend that previously went to traditional linear TV. In the twelve markets in which the subscription with advertising is available, the majority of new customers opt for it, according to Netflix.