This article is published in collaboration with Statista
by Felix Richter
When Netflix reported its fourth quarter earnings this week, the streaming service exceeded its expectations in terms of net subscriber additions. The company added 7.7 million subscribers between October and January, bringing its total subscriber base to 231 million. Despite beating its forecast for two quarters in a row, Netflix only expects moderate subscriber growth in the first three months of 2023.
The release of milestone titles like the fourth season of the hit show Stranger Things and successful new franchises like Wednesday is most likely one of the reasons that Netflix was able to bounce back from a sub-optimal start into the past year. "We get amazing results when we have a Wednesday, Glass Onion or Monster moment with our members", said the company in its letter to shareholders. "We believe people typically sign up for a streaming service because they’ve heard about a title 'you simply must watch' from a friend, seen the excitement on social media or read about it in the press."
Following a record year that saw Netflix add 36 million subscribers in 2020, the world's most popular video streaming service had seen its subscriber growth slow significantly in 2021 before it came to a screeching halt in the first half of 2022. Between January and June, the company lost 1.2 million subscribers, causing unrest among the company's shareholders.
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