Paying Netflix subscribers increase by 4.4 million to 214 million

Netflix had 214 million paid subscribers at the end of the third quarter of 2021, a net increase of 4.4 million. Especially in Asia and the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, subscribers were added.

The increase of 4.4 million subscribers in the third quarter marked a significant growth compared to the second quarter, when Netflix was able to add 1.5 million paying customers. The growth was also higher than Netflix had expected: after the second quarter, Netflix indicated that it would gain 3.5 million new customers in the third quarter.

The Asia-Pacific region was particularly responsible for the growth, with 2.2 million subscribers. Europe, the Middle East and Africa also contributed, with 1.8 million subscribers. In the US and Canada, there were only 70,000 new subscribers, but 400,000 net subscribers left the service in the second quarter.

Netflix expects to add 8.5 million subscribers in the fourth quarter. Among other things, the company points to the success of Squid Game. In the first week after the release of the Korean series, 142 million subscribers watched it. Later this year, Netflix will switch to hours viewed of its titles, rather than the number of accounts that have watched videos. Growth this year, however, is lagging sharply behind previous years, especially 2020, when the company gained a record number of new customers.