Enjoy this quarterly-subscriber update while you can, because it’s the last time Netflix plans on sharing one.
Netflix ended 2024 with a whopping 302 million global paid subscribers, up roughly 19 million from the end of September. Media analysts expected the streamer would add 9 million (or so) subs in the period. It blew that number out of the water and had a record quarter.
Wall Street forecast Netflix’s fourth quarter earnings per share (EPS) would come in at $4.19 on $10.11 billion in revenue, according to consensus forecasts. Netflix on Thursday beat those expectations and reported EPS of $4.27 on $10.24 billion in revenue; net income was $1.86 billion. It’s the first time Netflix surpassed $10 billion in revenue in the streamer’s history.
As of October 17, 2024, Netflix anticipated Q4 revenue of $10.13 billion and a $1.85 billion profit ($5.40 in EPS).
Netflix will share subscriber total updates as it crosses key milestones, but quarterly subscriber updates, as well as average revenue per user, won’t be included in its public earnings reports moving forward. Surpassing 300 million subscribers globally certainly seems like a milestone.
The biggest highlights for Netflix in Q4 came within the quarter’s final six days. On December 25, 2024, Christmas Day, Netflix streamed its first two NFL games — complete with a Beyoncé halftime show. The very next day, Netflix premiered the highly anticipated second season of “Squid Game,” its single largest piece of content in recorded history. On the film side, Netflix had a hit with “Carry-On,” its Christmas thriller released on December 13. It was the platform’s top film each week through the end of the year (and then some).
Netflix’s financial hit of 2024 was undoubtedly its paid-sharing program, colloquially referred to as its password-sharing crackdown. With advertising off to a slow start, Netflix needed the newfound revenue provided in the form of add-on plans for former account users outside of the primary household. The enforcement also converted millions of password-borrowers into account holders in their own right.
Netflix executives will follow up this afternoon’s earnings announcement with a video interview at 4:45 p.m. ET.
