Netflix added 5.1 million paid subscribers to reach 282.72 million globally in the third quarter of 2024. That marks year-over-year growth of more than 14%.
The third-quarter subscriber and financial results for the industry’s No. 1 premium streamer ended up besting analysts’ estimates on every key metric.
Wall Street forecast earnings per share of $5.12 on $9.77 billion in revenue for the July-September quarter, according to analyst consensus data provided by LSEG, formerly Refinitiv. Netflix reported adjusted EPS of $5.40 and net income of $2.4 billion, on $9.83 billion in revenue.
Revenue was up 15% from Q3 of 2023. Free cash flow stood at $2.2 billion for the most recent quarter.
While Netflix did not announce a U.S. price increase, as many industry analysts had expected, the company noted in its earnings materials its recent hike in some countries in the Europe, the Middle East and Africa region, as well as Japan, and will raise its rate in Spain and Italy beginning Friday. Additionally, the streamer said it will be phasing out its “Basic” tier plan in Brazil in Q4 after eliminating the offering in the U.S. and France in Q3.
In a letter to shareholders accompanying the earnings Thursday, Netflix updated investors on the growth for its young ad-supported product: “Our ads plan allows us to offer a lower price point for consumers, which is proving to be popular: in Q3, it accounted for over 50% of sign-ups in our ads countries and membership on our ads plan grew 35% quarter over quarter. We’re on track to reach what we believe to be critical ad subscriber scale for advertisers in all of our ads countries in 2025, creating a strong base from which we can further increase our ad membership in 2026 and beyond. We’re also pleased with the engagement on our ads plan with view hours per membership similar to engagement on our standard plan in our 12 ads countries.”
Netflix also emphasized its subscriber engagement, boasting “two hours a day per paid membership on average, despite the impact of paid sharing.”
In Q2, Netflix added 8.05 million net paid customers, bringing its global base to 277.65 million. For that second quarter, which runs April-June, the company reported revenue of $9.56 billion (up 17%) and net income of $2.15 billion (versus $1.49 billion a year ago), translating to earnings per share of $4.88.
Looking ahead, Netflix projects revenue of $10.1 billion for Q4 on EPS of $4.23, or profit of $1.8 billion. The streamer no longer offers forecasts on subscriber numbers for the coming quarters (and as of Q1 2025 will stop reporting them on a regular basis).
From Variety US