State of AI Apps Report 2025 is Live!
Seema Shah · January 2023
Small Screen: Netflix's Q4 Membership Beats Expectations
Netflix's Q4 2022 global streaming paid memberships beat expectations, with net adds of 7.6 million compared to consensus estimates of 4.6 million. The company's tentpole content, including Wednesday and Glass Onion, contributed to strong gains, with shares jumping 8% on the news. Netflix remains the leader in user engagement, with users opening the app 7.4 days per month in December 2022, compared to less than five days per month on Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, and Prime Video. However, the company anticipates some level of subscriber cancellation as it implements paid sharing fees.
Key Takeaways:
Netflix’s 4Q22 global streaming paid memberships beat Street estimates, with the company exhibiting strong gains on the back of tentpole content such as Wednesday and Glass Onion; shares jumped 8% on the print
Netflix net adds of 7.6mn beat consensus 4.6mn, while Sensor Tower showed worldwide December MAUs of 309mn vs 296mn in September (+4.3%)
Per ST estimates, US WAUs jumped 5% and 4% WoW upon the releases of Wednesday and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, respectively, with Wednesday being Netflix’s 3rd most popular series ever (after Squid Game and Stranger Things)
Netflix remains the leader in user engagement, despite competitive headwinds, with its users opening the app 7.4 days/month in Dec’22 vs. <5 days/month on Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, and Prime Video, per Sensor Tower Power User Curve data
Netflix users also spent significantly more time on the service with US users logging 590mn hours on the service in 4Q22, more than all of the other measured SVOD services combined
Netflix said it anticipates some level of subscriber cancellation as it implements paid sharing fees (estimated to affect ~100mn households), but expects an overall increase to top-line revenue as borrowers who are loyal to the service convert to paid account holders
Further reinforcing overall subscriber loyalty on Netflix, Sensor Tower Churn Analysis data indicates that the streaming service had the lowest mobile user churn on average compared to all of its peers at 20% throughout 2022 vs +28% on Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, Prime Video, and Peacock
Per ST estimates, SVOD providers saw DAU growth tick downwards (4% WoW collectively, save for HBO Max) during the week of Jan 9 as the holiday season came to a close
Upon the premiere of the video game-to-TV series adaptation of The Last of Us (Jan 15), HBO Max saw users flock to its platform to catch the first episode with average DAUs on Jan 15 & 16 up 24% compared to Jan 13 & 14 and 51% compared to Jan 8 & 9
For more information, request the full report from reports@sensortower.com.
