Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
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 on Tuesday.
Netflix said it would raise prices in the US, Canada, Portugal and Argentina. The most popular US plan will rise by $2.50 a month to $17.99, while its cheapest advertising-supported tier in the US will rise by $1 to $7.99 a month.
“[Netflix] is now flexing its muscles by adjusting prices given its far stronger and diversified programming slate compared to rivals,” said Paolo Pescatore, an analyst at PP Foresight.
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 an average of 24mn viewers each.
The success of the live sporting events has intensified speculation that Netflix could enter a bigger sports rights deal with a league. Ted Sarandos, co-chief executive, said during a conference call that sports rights deals were too expensive — but appeared to leave the door open for discussion.
“We’re thrilled with everything about” the NFL games on Netflix in December, he said. “But it doesn’t really change the underlying economics of full-season big league sports being extremely challenging. If there was a path where we could actually make the economics worth work for both us and the league, we certainly would explore.”
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 remained “intensely competitive”, it did not have the “distractions” of having to manage the decline of television networks that its rivals at the traditional Hollywood studios were 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 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. Sarandos said the first week of WWE on Netflix drew about 5mn viewers.
Executives have said the live events will help deliver audiences that advertisers crave. The ads business had a choppy start after its introduction in the autumn of 2022, given weakness in the sector.
But Greg Peters, co-CEO, said advertising revenue doubled last year and he was expecting it to double again in 2025. “We’re making solid progress” in advertising, he said. “You can say that 2025 is the year that we transition from a crawl to a walk.”