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At the end of the year, Netflix reached nearly 222 million global subscribers, adding 8.3 million customers across the world.
That’s nearly double the 4.4 million it added a quarter ago, with 1.2 million coming from the U.S. and Canada, though slightly below its forecast of 8.5 million.
Despite having over 100 million more global subscribers than the next closest streaming service on the market, Netflix is adamant that it still has room to grow. Pointing to increased competition from other streaming services (Disney alone has 179 million total subscribers across its streaming platforms), the company sees space for global expansion.
“While this added competition may be affecting our marginal growth some, we continue to grow in every country and region in which these new streaming alternatives have launched,” the company said Thursday afternoon in its quarterly letter to shareholders. “This reinforces our view that the greatest opportunity in entertainment is the transition from linear to streaming and that with under 10% of total TV screen time in the U.S., our biggest market, Netflix has tremendous room for growth if we can continue to improve our service.”
Netflix saw its fourth quarter revenue grow 16% to reach $30 billion, a $7.7 billion gain.
“Even in a world of uncertainty and increasing competition, we’re optimistic about our long-term growth prospects as streaming supplants linear entertainment around the world,” the company said.
Subscriber gains in the U.S. and Canada marked the strongest quarter of member growth in the region since the early days of Covid-19 in 2020. In Latin America the streamer added 1 million subscribers, but the strongest growth came from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, adding 3.5 million subscribers and delivering record quarterly revenue, exceeding $2.5 billion for the first time.
Big numbers for The Witcher, Maid
The fourth quarter results marked the first time the company measured its releases in its new “minutes viewed” metric.
The second season of fantasy drama The Witcher saw 484 million hours watched in its first 28 days, followed by the returns of Emily in Paris (287 million hours) and Cobra Kai (274 million hours). Last year’s breakout international hit Squid Game generated 1.65 billion hours viewed in its first four weeks and is now the company’s biggest TV season ever.
And more Squid Game is officially in the works at the streamer. “The Squid Game universe has just begun,” co-CEO and chief content officer Ted Sarandos said during the investors video interview.
Other breakout hits included the blockbuster film Red Notice, starring Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds, which became Netflix’s most popular movie debut of all-time with 364 million hours viewed in its first four weeks, and limited series Maid, with 469 million hours viewed.
Netflix raised its subscription rates in the U.S. last week for the first time since 2020, but the streamer lowered its prices across all four plans in India, which the company said would make Netflix more accessible to a broader swatch of the population.
The streamer also continued its mobile games rollout, adding five additional games last quarter to bring the total to 10 for 2021.
“It’s still very early days but we’re pleased with our progress,” the company told shareholders. In 2022, Netflix plans to expand its portfolio of games across both casual and core gaming genres.
