Netflix Subscriber Growth in 2021 Plunges by 50%—Despite ‘Squid Game’ Phenomenon

Netflix subscriber growth in 2021 saw a massive plunge by 50% than its 2020 figures, missing its growth forecast for the last quarter of last year.

It comes despite the global hit series on the streaming platform, the South Korean thriller show, "Squid Game."

Not to mention that Netflix also released its most-viewed movies with a star-studded cast, namely "Don't Look Up" and "Red Notice," during the said period, as per a news story by The Verge.

Netflix Subscriber Growth 2021

To be more precise, Netflix initially forecasted that the end of 2021 will be welcoming a whopping 222 million new subscribers. However, the reality failed to reflect this prediction, which only accounted for 221 million subscribers in the fourth quarter of last year.

Although the subscriber growth of the streaming platform only failed to reach its goal by a slight margin, Netflix investors are still disappointed.

In fact, according to a report by CNBC, the shares of the streaming service have fallen to their lowest since June 2020 due to the growth performance of Netflix.

As of writing, the shares of Netflix have gone down by 20% on Thursday, Jan. 21. It comes shortly after the tech giant shared its 2021 fourth-quarter earnings, shedding light on its growth during that time.

Netflix Growth: 2020 vs. 2021

On top of that, the performance of Netflix at the end of 2021 also drastically decreased by half when compared to its bloated figures in the latter part of 2020.

Netflix vs. Competition

The streaming service told its shareholders that its competition "has only intensified over the last 24 months as entertainment companies all around the world develop their own streaming offering."

It is worth noting that other giant household names in entertainment, such as Warner Bros. and Disney have also aggressively entered the streaming market.

In fact, as per the report by TechCrunch, the streaming services of Disney, including Hulu and ESPN, performed impressively in the latter part of last year with about 179 million total subscribers.

On the other hand, Netflix still holds nearly 222 million paying subscribers in total.

Meanwhile, the streaming platform of Warner Bros, HBO Max, also claimed that the last month of 2021 is its best in terms of views since it was launched way back in May 2020.

That said, Netflix admitted to its investors that the increasing competition could be attributed to its decreasing growth.

However, aside from that, the company further said that it could also be "due to several factors including the ongoing Covid overhang." Not to mention that some folks around the world are also struggling economically.

Nevertheless, Netflix recently increased its subscription fee in the United States and Canada. It also launched Netflix Gaming last year.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Teejay Boris