Netflix is one of the most popular streaming platforms around, with more than 260 million paid subscribers in January 2024. Netflix has changed the way people watch movies and television, and these Netflix statistics show a company that has consistently pivoted with the times since its founding in the ’90s.

In this article, we will explore some of the most interesting and relevant Netflix statistics that will give you deeper insight into the streaming giant. We will also look at some of the trends and predictions for Netflix’s future growth.

General Netflix Statistics & Facts

The statistics below discuss Netflix as a company, including its founding, history and general practices. We will take a look at the characteristics that make this company unique, as well as how it got to where it is today.

1. Netflix shipped 5.2 billion DVDs between 1997 and 2023

Netflix began as a service through which users ordered movies and TV series on DVD that were delivered by mail. In 2007, it introduced a plan that allowed users to stream content on their devices without having to wait for a DVD to arrive.^7,35

2. The company grew from $1 million to $5 million in revenue per year between 1998 and 1999

Netflix began offering an online subscription service in 1999. The service still only offered physical DVDs to rent, but it launched a website where users could select the media they wanted to borrow. Then, Netflix would mail users up to four DVDs at a time along with prepaid return envelopes so users could send them back within a week. When a user returned a DVD, Netflix would mail them the next title on their list.³³

3. The company increased revenue by almost $160 million the year it began streaming services

Netflix saw an increase in revenue between 2007 and 2008 when it began offering streaming services. Initially, the streaming service offered was in addition to physical DVDs, but in 2010 Netflix began offering a streaming-only subscription tier. That same year, the company expanded into Canada and began steadily growing its reach by offering its service to new countries each year to date.^5,34

4. Netflix became the first international streaming platform of its kind in 2010

Netflix first launched outside of the U.S. in Canada in 2010 and became the first international film and television streaming platform. From there, the streaming platform expanded to Latin America and the Caribbean and then on to Europe and Oceania.

5. In 2013, Netflix was the first streaming service to win an Emmy

Netflix won its first Emmy in 2013 for ‘House of Cards.’ David Fincher won Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series, and the series also won awards for Outstanding Casting and Cinematography.¹⁴

6. Netflix has won 184 Emmy awards to date for its original content

The streaming powerhouse has received 970 Emmy nominations in the 10 years since 2013 for a wide variety of content. This is a particularly impressive figure when you consider that Netflix only began creating original content a decade ago.¹⁴ 

7. Netflix won its first Oscar in 2017

The Netflix original documentary ‘The White Helmets’ won an Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject. Three years later, ‘American Factory’ won Best Documentary Feature in 2020. To date, the company has been nominated for 132 Oscars and won 22 across a wide variety of categories, but no Netflix production has won Best Picture to date.¹⁵

Netflix User Statistics

Netflix has a lot more competition now than when it began its streaming services in 2007, but it is still the largest streaming platform around. Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ both have large subscriber numbers of their own, but the stats are skewed due to bundling with Amazon Prime Delivery and Hulu/ESPN, respectively. Now, let’s take a look at Netflix user and subscriber stats and facts.

8. Netflix surpassed 200 million subscribers in 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic fueled a growth spurt for the company, and it gained more than 34 million subscribers in the year between the end of 2019 and 2020.¹⁶

9. In 2022, Netflix estimated that more than 100 million American households had access to its service through password sharing

Netflix’s estimates are in line with those of Morning Consult, a market research firm that found that a large number of Americans were sharing their passwords with someone outside of their household.³⁸

10. Netflix had more than 80 million paid memberships in the U.S. and Canada as of Q4 2023

Netflix subscriber numbers have steadily grown in the U.S. and Canada over the 16 years the platform has been offering content streaming as a service.¹

11. A total of 80% of Netflix views come from the service’s own recommendations

The Netflix recommendation system is a combination of several algorithms that filter content based on users’ profiles and search history. It creates a personalized set of data for each user and resets itself every 24 hours as new content is added, so users continue to discover new content from Netflix’s updated catalog.

12. Netflix lost 1 million users in Spain when it announced its password sharing crackdown in early 2023

Kantar, a market research group, found that the user rate in Spain plummeted when Netflix announced a monthly fee for password sharing, though many of those users were not paying subscribers.¹⁰

13. In Germany and Spain, 9% of subscribers canceled their Netflix subscriptions in 2023

Germany and Spain had the highest cancellation rates, at 9%, whereasFrance had the lowest number of cancellations, at 2%.³⁹

14. Netflix briefly saw an increase of up to 73,000 daily signups in the U.S. a few days after announcing its crackdown on password sharing

The increase in signups represented a 102% increase over the previous 60-day average. Though there were some service cancellations, signups outweighed them. The ratio of cancellations was up 25.6% compared to the previous 60-day period. The spike in new users after the announcement was even higher than Netflix’s previous highest growth period of about 65,000 new users during the COVID-19 lockdowns in March 2020.⁹ 

15. On average, 30% of new subscriptions in Netflix’s ad countries subscribe to the ad-based plan

The platform introduced a cheaper plan with ads in 2022, and the number of users opting for that plan is growing at a rate of almost 70% per quarter.⁹ 

16. Brazil has 15 million Netflix subscribers, making it the nation with the second highest number of subscribers

The United States has almost 67 million Netflix users in 2023, while Brazil has more than 15 million. Somalia, Bhutan and Nepal are the nations with the fewest Netflix users, with only about 1,000 subscribers each.¹⁷

17. The EMEA region has 88.81 million paying Netflix subscribers

In 2023, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) is the region with the most paying subscribers, followed by the U.S. and Canada, with 80.13 million. Next is Latin America, with 46 million subscribers, and Asia Pacific, with 45.34 million.¹

18. The countries with most content available on Netflix worldwide are all in Europe

The following 10 countries have the most worldwide titles available on Netflix.¹¹

1. 🇸🇰 Slovakia 8,427
2. 🇧🇬 Bulgaria 8,272
3. 🇱🇻 Latvia 8,092
4. 🇪🇪 Estonia 8,071
5. 🇮🇸 Iceland 8,012
6. 🇱🇹 Lithuania 7,994
7. 🇷🇴 Romania 7,748
8. 🇬🇧 U.K. 7,482
9. 🇵🇹 Portugal 7,411
10. 🇮🇪 Ireland 7,394

19. Netflix has added 224.5 million subscribers over 10 years.

Netflix grew from 35.5 million subscribers in Q3 2013 to 260 million in Q4 2023. This growth has happened steadily, with expanded market reach each year. Netflix finished Q3 2013 with 35.64 million subscribers and grew to 50.65 million by Q3 the following year. The company has increased its Netflix account subscriber count by 15 to 30 million each year since 2013.³

There are many reasons for the company’s growth, including continuously expanding content and more flexible subscription plans. 

Netflix Revenue Statistics & Trends

Netflix has invested heavily in its growth year after year and is constantly adapting to a changing streaming market. Here, we will discuss Netflix’s revenue, expenses and market share.

20. Netflix’s operating margin is expected to increase from 16.9% in Q4 2023 to 26.2% in Q1 2024.

Netflix’s earnings as of October 2023 were on par with its 2020 earnings, but its operating costs were cut. The result is that the company was on track to earn more in 2023 than in 2020 or the intervening years.⁶ This success is expected to carry over into 2024 and — alongside a weak U.S. dollar — increase operating margins. ¹

21. Netflix’s revenue was $8.83 billion as of Q4 2023.

This represents a 12.5% increase year over year. During the period of Q4 2022 to Q4 2023, Netflix increased its streaming revenue by $336 million in the U.S and Canada and by $434 million in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. It also increased streaming revenue in Latin America by $139 million and in Asia Pacific by $106 million.¹

22. Netflix earned $16.64 per user per month with American- and Canada-based streaming customers in Q4 2023.

Average revenue per subscriber in this region dropped in the first two quarters in 2023, but then recovered past the high of $16.23 per subscriber in Q4 2022. ¹

In 2022, Netflix made an average revenue of $15.86 per user per month via paying streaming customers in North America, marking an increase from $14.56 per user per month in 2021. The monthly average revenues from streaming subscriptions in Europe, the Middle East and Africa slightly decreased from the previous year to $10.99 per user per month in 2022.³⁷

23. Netflix takes up 14.93% of global download traffic

This is almost as much as YouTube and TikTok combined (15.55%) and is nearly a 50% increase from 2021, when the company’s traffic represented 9.39% of global downloads.¹³

24. The company’s income increased by 47.91% in 2020 from 2019

Due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic and international lockdowns, there were huge increases in viewing time across all genres of Netflix content in 2020. The company has continued to grow in the subsequent years but not as aggressively as the growth it saw in 2020.³⁰

25. The streaming giant spent more than $26.76 billion on operating expenses in 2023.

This includes all the expenses of running Netflix, such as marketing and sales, accounting, salaries and wages and all the other costs the company incurs through day-to-day operations. ¹ Netflix’s operating expenses have been steadily increasing each year as it puts financial resources into research and development as well as the production costs for new content.⁶

26. Netflix is estimated to spend $9.6 million per month on AWS

Netflix spends around $9.6 million per month on AWS, making the streaming giant one of AWS’ top spenders, according to Intricately, a company that measures cloud data storage.²⁹ 

27. Netflix comprised 7.8% of screen time on U.S. TVs in September 2023

That’s more than any other streaming service apart from YouTube, which had 9%.This figure allows room for growth but accounts for an incredibly high number of eyes on screens. Netflix screentime is higher than that of other online activities, such as web browsing, playing video games, reading news or shopping.⁶

Netflix Content Statistics

Netflix libraries differ from country to country, with some overlap. If you are looking to unblock content from other nations, read our article on the best VPN for Netflix. Below, we will discuss Netflix’s content, its libraries and related topics.

28. Netflix original titles comprise 55% of the U.S. Netflix library

The streaming service has been producing its own original content since 2013. ‘House of Cards’ was the first content that Netflix produced specifically for its streaming audience, and it ran for five years. 

There are now more than 3,500 Netflix originals on the service globally. Many of them are the platform’s most popular content and have won Emmys and Oscars.⁷ Originals are some of the most popular content on the platform, including titles such as ‘Stranger Things,’ ‘Ozark’ and ‘Squid Game.’⁸

29. Stranger Things cost $30 million per episode

As one of Netflix’s most popular shows and the most expensive Netflix original, the budget has increased each year. Season one began with a budget of $6 million, and the following year the show had a budget of $8 million. Season four was reportedly granted a budget of $30 million per episode.²⁶

30. Stranger Things season four is the English-language series with the most Netflix viewing hours as of April 2024

‘Stranger Things’ season four was released on Netflix in two volumes on May 27 and July 1, 2022. The series has won 12 Emmys out of 57 nominations and has consistently won in the Sound Editing category every year it has been eligible since season one.¹⁴ 

31. Wednesday season one was the most-viewed English-language series on Netflix in 2023

This popular Netflix original title debuted at the end of 2022 and has more than 1.7 billion hours of viewing time. That’s a few million hours less than ‘Stranger Things: Season 4,’ but ‘Wednesday’ has more views and a shorter run time.¹⁴

32. Grace and Frankie ran for 94 episodes, making it the platform’s longest-running series

The show, which ran for seven seasons, was known for addressing age-related themes and garnered critical acclaim, a devoted global fanbase and 11 Emmy nominations and six Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations.³⁶

33. The Night Agent, a Netflix original, had the most watched original television series for 37 of the 38 weeks of its 2023 report

Netflix’s most watched series ratings are based on data that Netflix released. The data covers more than 18,000 titles that had more than 50,000 hours viewed between January and June 2023. In “What We Watched, A Netflix Engagement Report,” Netflix states that its most watched show for the first half of 2023 was ‘The Night Agent’ season one.⁶

34. One Piece was Netflix’s first-ever English-language title to debut at number-one in Japan

Netflix’s live-action adaptation of the classic Japanese manga series generated enormous buzz on social media and garnered more than 62 million views globally. It had 18.5 million views just four days after release, and the series reached Netflix’s top 10 in 93 countries.⁶

35. The Netflix original series Ozark was the most watched series of 2020, but Tiger King had twice as many streams per episode

‘Tiger King’ premiered on March 20, 2020, and within 10 days it had 34 million views. It has fewer viewing minutes than ‘Ozark,’ ‘Lucifer’ and ‘The Crown,’ but it also has significantly fewer episodes.²⁵

36. A total of 47% of Netflix films or series featured a lead or co-lead from an underrepresented racial/ethnic group

By giving underrepresented groups a platform, Netflix is helping to break down barriers to inclusion that have been present in film and television for far too long. This also provides viewers a richer and more inclusive range of narratives.

37. In total, 55% of all Netflix series from 2018 to 2021 featured a female lead or co-lead

By centering stories around female characters, Netflix is helping to provide strong role models for viewers. This also reflects a broader industry trend toward more gender-balanced storytelling.

Netflix Employee Statistics

Netflix has been steadily growing its workforce. The company makes an effort at gender and racial inclusivity and has a fairly balanced gender distribution, but there is high employee turnover. The Netflix statistics below discuss Netflix’s employee numbers.

38. Netflix more than doubled its number of employees between 2017 and 2022

As of 2022, Netflix was employing 12,800 people full-time worldwide. This is more than twice the 5,500 people the company employed in 2017. In 2022 alone, there was a 13.47% increase in the total number of employees over 2021.¹⁸

39. A total of 63% of Netflix employees are between the ages of 20 and 30

Although Netflix prides itself on ethnic and gender diversity, the company does not represent a particularly diverse range of age groups in its employees. Most employees are under 30, with comparatively few employees over 40.¹⁹

40. The average Netflix salary is $84,375 per year

This rate changes according to the role of the employee and their location, with most roles falling between $36,000 and $116,000 per year. The company’s largest locations are in Los Angeles and Los Gatos, California, as well as Albuquerque, New Mexico, and New York City.

41. A total of 41% of Netflix employees have at least a bachelor’s degree

The most common field of study for Netflix employees is business, but not all employees have pursued higher education. Almost 26% of employees’ highest level of education is high school. 

42. Women comprise 47% of Netflix executives

Women make up 47% of Netflix executives, according to employee reports. The majority of positions held by women in the company are in accounting and human resources. Supply chain, art and design, engineering and IT are all roles dominated by men in the company.¹⁹

43. A total of 39% of Netflix employees are from minority backgrounds

A total of 42% of Netflix executives belong to a minority, while 39% of all Netflix employees have a minority background. In summary, 53.3% of employees are white, 22.1% are Hispanic or Latino, 11.6% are Asian, 9.8% are Black or African American and 3.3% are unknown.¹⁹

44. In total, 38% of Netflix employees stay at the company for less than one year

The data indicates that employees don’t tend to stay at Netflix long, with only 5% of staff staying for more than 11 years. A total of 33% of employees stay for one to two years. Compare that to HBO, for example, where 15% of employees stay longer than 11 years and 26% stay less than one year.³²

Miscellaneous Netflix Statistics & Facts

The Netflix statistics below discuss stats that aren’t covered in other categories. This includes details like the price of Netflix in various countries and other interesting facts.

45. Half of all users occasionally watch Netflix on mobile

Although 50% of users watch content on their smartphones, mobile viewing only accounts for about 10% of viewing hours. Mobile viewing tends to happen about an hour after peak viewing times, indicating that users begin watching content on a larger screen and then carry on later while relaxing with their phones.²⁰

46. The cheapest subscription plans are available in Egypt, Pakistan and Turkey

A Netflix subscription in one of these three nations costs between $2.90 and $5.30 per month, with a wide variety of available titles, making these the nations with the lowest cost per title. Kenya and Nigeria have slightly lower subscription costs compared to Turkey, but fewer titles are available.¹¹

47. Liechtenstein and Switzerland have the most expensive Netflix subscriptions

A Netflix subscription cost $21.19 per month in both of those nations as of October 2023. The next most expensive Netflix subscription is in Denmark and costs $16.17 per month, followed by Ireland at $15.87 per month.²² 

48. Netflix isn’t available in China, Crimea, North Korea, Russia or Syria

The streaming service is available in 190 countries, but unfortunately, there are some places where it is not available — namely, China, Russia, North Korea and Syria, as well as the province of Crimea.²¹

49. The team that won the Netflix Prize in 2006 improved Netflix’s existing recommendation system, Cinematch, by 10.06%

The contest prize was $1 million, and the goal was to improve Netflix’s existing recommendation system, Cinematch, by at least 10%. The contest attracted more than 50,000 participants from 186 nations. Three years after launching the contest, the prize was awarded to BellKor’s Pragmatic Chaos, a team of seven mathematicians, computer scientists and engineers from North America, Europe and the Middle East.⁷

50. Harvard Business School suggested that the Netflix recommendation system is worth billions of dollars

The worth of Netflix’s recommendation system is due to its pivotal role in user engagement and retention. By analyzing vast amounts of user data, Netflix’s algorithm efficiently curates personalized content recommendations that cater to users’ individual preferences. It retains users’ attention and serves them up something they are likely to enjoy within 60 to 90 seconds of browsing titles.²⁴

Final Thoughts

That’s the end of our Netflix statistics list. Netflix is a behemoth in the streaming industry, with more than 247 million subscribers worldwide. The recent crackdown on password sharing shows that even giants can face user fluctuations. 

The company’s innovative content creation strategies and constant shifts to meet current market demands have helped it hold a dominant position in the streaming market.

Netflix is a fascinating company and an ever-evolving force shaping the future of entertainment worldwide. What are your thoughts on Netflix? Were any of these Netflix statistics surprising or new to you? We would love to hear from you in the comments below. Thanks for reading!

FAQ: Netflix Statistics

• What Is the #1 Most Watched Film in Netflix History?

  ‘Red Notice’ is Netflix’s most watched film of all time, with more than 364 million viewing hours clocked within the first 28 days of its release.[4]

• What Is the #1 Netflix Series Right Now?

  ‘Squid Game’ season one is the most watched Netflix series of 2023, with more than two billion viewing hours.[1]

• What Is the Most Watched Content on Netflix?

  ‘Squid Game’ season one is the most viewed content on Netflix.[1]

• Is Netflix Profitable?

  Netflix had an operating profit of  $6.95 billion in 2023. [1]

   

   

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34. Netflix Revenue and Net Income by Year: FY 1998 to 2020 – Dazeinfo
35. Netflix’s DVD business almost didn’t exist – ABC News
36. ‘Grace And Frankie’ To End With Season 7 – Deadline 
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40. Netflix Q2 Summary