Netflix has added more than 9 million subscribers in the first three months of 2024 in its best start to the year since the start of Covid lockdowns.
The American streaming giant said 9.33 million paying customers joined its platform between January and March, bringing the total to almost 270 million worldwide.
The increase was nearly double the 5 million subscribers analysts had forecast and marked its best first quarter since adding 15.77 million subscribers in 2020.
But Netflix said it will stop reporting its quarterly membership numbers starting next year. “We are off to a good start in 2024,” the company said.
The California company enjoyed a 14.8 percent revenue increase in the first quarter.
Recent Netflix hits include Scoop starring Gillian Anderson and Rufus Sewell (both pictured)
Recent Netflix hits include Scoop, starring Gillian Anderson and Rufus Sewell, as well as Billie Piper, a film based on how Newsnight secured Prince Andrew’s infamous 2019 interview about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Netflix boomed during Covid lockdowns as families stuck at home signed up for streaming services.
But it lost more than a million subscribers in the first half of 2022, raising fears of a prolonged decline.
The stock lost more than 75 percent of its value in late 2021 and early 2022. Since then, the stock has nearly tripled, although it is some way off the 2021 highs.
Subscribers have also returned to the platform in droves despite a crackdown on password sharing.
Netflix rival Disney said it will also tighten its policy from June, and analysts estimate there may be around 46 million password “sharers.”
CEO Bob Iger said this month that Netflix is ”the gold standard in streaming” and that if Disney “can only achieve what it has achieved, that would be fantastic.”
Sophie Lund-Yates, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Netflix’s subscriber growth has turned the lights out again despite tough competition and tough inflation pressures.
“The biggest question now will be how Netflix continues to keep churn to a minimum, as rivals catch up with their own cheaper plans.”