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Netflix added a record 19mn subscribers in the fourth quarter as viewers flocked to stream the new instalment of Squid Game and live sporting events including a much-hyped boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul.
The increase meant Netflix had 301mn total subscribers at the end of 2024, up 15 per cent from a year earlier and higher than the 293mn expected by Wall Street. Its shares surged more than 13 per cent in after-hours trading.
The streaming pioneer made a big push into live sporting events in the fourth quarter, with the boxing match between Tyson and Paul attracting 65mn streams worldwide. On Christmas Day it streamed a pair of National Football League games, one of which featured Beyoncé as a halftime performer, that reached 24mn viewers each. Netflix also debuted the second season of Squid Game, which had reached a record-breaking 68mn views in its first week.
“We enter 2025 with strong momentum, coming off a year with record net (subscriber) additions and having re-accelerated growth,” the company wrote in a letter to shareholders.
It added that while the business remains “intensely competitive”, it does not have the “distractions” of having to manage the decline of television networks that its rivals at the traditional Hollywood studios are coping with.
Revenue was $10.2bn in the fourth quarter, and the company raised its revenue guidance for this year by $500mn, up as much as 14 per cent from 2024. Earnings per share more than doubled to $4.27 from $2.11 a year ago, and operating income surpassed $2bn, up 52 per cent.
This is the last time Netflix will report quarterly subscriber figures, which have been closely watched by investors for years. But it said it would continue to release the numbers “as we cross key milestones”.
Its subscriber base has surged since launching a crackdown on password sharing in May 2023, which pushed the shares up by more than 80 per cent in 2024. But the stock has had a bumpy start in 2025.
Wall Street has been bracing for subscription growth to slow as the initial boost from the initiative wanes. But Netflix is making a big bet on live events to draw in new subscribers, and this month it debuted its weekly streams of WWE Raw — part of a 10-year deal with the wrestling entertainment group.
Executives have said that the live events would help deliver audiences that advertisers crave. The ads business has had a choppy start since its introduction in the autumn of 2022, given weakness in the sector.
“A top priority in 2025 is to improve our offering for advertisers to that we can substantially grow our advertising revenue,” it said in the shareholder letter.
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