Netflix just keeps on growing. The company announced they reached 203.66 million subscribers in Q4 2020. The company added a massive 8.51 million this quarter (compared to 8.76 million in the same quarter last year). For the full year, Netflix added a record 37m paid memberships.
Last quarter, Netflix announced they reached 195.15 million subscribers in the Q3 2020. However, they had added just 2.2 million (compared to 6.8 million in the same quarter last year), as a result of what the company says is “our record first half result and the pull-toward effect.”
In the U.S. and Canada, Netflix now has 73.9 million subscribers, up just 73.1 million subscribers from last quarter. In the fourth quarter they added 860K subscribers in U.S. and Canada, as compared to 550K subscribers last year. This comes after raising the price of their Standard and Premium plans to $13.99 (+$1) and $17.99 (+$2) respectively.
Though once thought as a direct competitor to Netflix, Disney+ has presented itself as a successful complement to the service. In December, CEO Bob Chapek announced the streamer had climbed to 86.8 million subscribers as of Dec. 2. Disney’s other streaming service, Hulu was at 38.8 million subscribers.
In their letter to shareholders, Netflix said, “The big growth in streaming entertainment has led legacy competitors like Disney, WarnerMedia and Discovery to compete with us in new ways, which we’ve been expecting for many years. This is, in part, why we have been moving so quickly to grow and further strengthen our original content library across a wide range of genres and nations.”
Newcomers Peacock, announced 26 million sign-ups (not subscribers) in December, while HBO and HBO Max had a combined 38 million U.S. subscribers as of the end of September. However, since they have added support for Roku and Fire TV devices – and announced Warner Bros. entire 2021 slate of film would debut on the platform.
Internationally, Netflix’s biggest competitor is Amazon Prime Video, which is bundled with Prime is most markets. While they have never disclosed Prime Video subscribers, there are more than 150 million Amazon Prime subscribers worldwide.