Netflix revealed it has now reached 301.63 million subscribers globally when it reported its fourth-quarter 2024 earnings Tuesday.
Analysts estimated the streamer would add 9.18 million paid subs during the October-December time period versus the 13.12 million it tacked on in the comparable Q4 2023. Netflix smashed those expectations by adding a record-breaking 18.91 million subscribers, a year-over-year increase of 15.9%.
For comparison, Netflix added 5.1 million paid subscribers in Q3 of 2024 to reach 282.72 million globally. That marked year-over-year growth of more than 14%.
“Our Q4 slate outperformed even our high expectations: ‘Squid Game’ season 2 is on track to become one of our most watched original series seasons, ‘Carry-On’ joined our all-time Top 10 films list, the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight became the most-streamed sporting event ever and on Christmas Day we delivered the two most-streamed NFL games in history,” Netflix said in a letter to shareholders.
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Broken down by region, Netflix says it added 4.82 million subscribers in the U.S. and Canada, 5 million across its Europe, Middle East and Africa region, and 4.15 million in Latin America, and 4.94 million the Asia-Pacific territory.
It should be noted that the fourth-quarter of 2024 marks the last quarter Netflix will be providing subscriber numbers regularly. Netflix announced this decision in April 2024, stating it will reveal “major subscriber milestones as we cross them” but will cease disclosing quarterly results in that metric.
Wall Street forecast earnings per share (EPS) of $4.20 on $10.11 billion in revenue, according to analyst consensus data provided by LSEG. Netflix reported diluted EPS of $4.27 on $10.2 billion in revenue.
Operating income was $2.3 billion for Q3. Free cash flow stood at $1.4 billion.
In its financial results, Netflix noted another price increase will soon be going into effect and outlined its top priorities for 2025 as follows: “Improve our core business with more series and films our members love, an enhanced product experience and growth of our ads business; Further develop newer initiatives such as live programming and games; Sustain healthy growth – we now forecast 2025 revenue of $43.5-$44.5B (+$0.5B vs. prior forecast, despite the strengthening of the US dollar) and an operating margin of 29%, up one point from our prior forecast.”
This year, Netflix will release the final seasons of “Stranger Things” and “Squid Game,” as well as Season 2 of “Wednesday.”
During a video presentation for investors later Tuesday, co-CEO Ted Sarandos said that Netflix expects “no meaningful” disruption to to its production schedule or content spending as a result of the ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles, but notes the big disruption to people’s lives and the company’s focus on supporting its staff and talent at this time.
Sarandos also disclosed that Netflix will begin releasing its biannual engagement report ranking viewership for its titles time to its quarterly earnings. The report covering the second half of 2024 will come out in February, but after that, the new cycle will begin with the release of the first 2025 report in July.
Co-CEO Greg Peters noted that the streamer continues to “refine our strategy” in its growing video games business, where it will be “focusing on more narrative games based on Netflix IP,” like the recently released “Squid Game: Unleashed.” Peters says Netflix will also be introducing “party and couch co-op games on the TV delivered from the cloud.”
“We think of this as a successor to family board game night, or an evolution of what the game show on TV used to be,” Peters said. “So we’re excited about delivering some cool experiences in that space. We’ll deliver games for kids. This is no ads, no in-app payments, so a safe space for kids, just included with your subscription. And of course, we want to do more recognizable mainstream titles, whether that is licensed titles like ‘GTA,’ and we’re gonna have more of those big licensed titles to come that we’re looking forward to, as well as homegrown titles based on our IP.”