Netflix Now Has 260.8 Million Paid Subscribers

Netflix added 13.1 million subscribers in the quarter ending December 31, 2023, up 12.8 percent year-over-year for the biggest gain of the past year. Netflix now has 260.8 million paid subscribers, up from 231 million at the end of 2022.

This milestone was revealed as part of Netflix’s quarterly earnings announcement. The firm earned a net income of $938 million on revenues of $8.83 billion, up 12.5 percent YOY. And for the fiscal year, it earned a net income of $5.4 billion on revenues of $33.7 billion.

“We’ve just ended our first year with Ted [Sarandos] and Greg [Peters] as co-CEOs and, under their leadership, Netflix achieved the key financial objectives we set at the start of 2023,” a Netflix letter to shareholders explains. (In the year-ago quarter, the firm announced that founder Reed Hastings would step down as CEO and become executive chairman.) “The year has shown the need for Netflix to balance consistency and continuous improvement with adaptability. We believe there is plenty of room for growth ahead as streaming expands, and our north star remains the same: to thrill members with our entertainment. If we can continue to improve Netflix faster than the competition, we’ll have an increasingly valuable business – for consumers, creators, and shareholders.”

Netflix highlighted some of its most successful content in 2023, including the series The Crown, with 30 million views, My Life with the Walter Boys (42.6 million views), and All the Light We Cannot See (35.4 million views), and the movies Leo (108.1 million views), Leave the World Behind (134.2 million views), and The Killer *(70 million views). Non-English programming like Lupin season three from France (50 million views) and Criminal Code from Brazil (20.9 million views) was also quite popular.

Netflix says that it expects “healthy double-digit revenue growth” in the current fiscal year and that it will continue to invest heavily in content to outpace its competitors. It has high expectations for strike-delayed series like The Diplomat season two, Bridgerton season three, and Squid Game season two, and movies like Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F and the Rebel Moon sequel. The firm also notes that while it is the most or second most popular streaming service in most countries, it only commands 5 percent of an addressable market that’s worth $600 billion or more each year. And so the opportunity is there.

What hasn’t panned out for Netflix is its new video game business, which it described as “small” and “not yet material relative to [its] film and series business.” But the Q4 debut of the Grand Theft Auto trilogy was a high point.

Beyond 2024, Netflix sees its ad business, which isn’t currently the company’s primary driver of revenue growth, becoming more important. It expects “a more substantial revenue stream that contributes to sustained, healthy revenue growth in 2025 and beyond.”