Netflix Loses Subscribers for the First Time in 10 Years, Blames Account Sharing

Netflix lost subscribers for the first time in more than a decade in Q1 2022, according to subscriber numbers the company said during today's earnings results. Netflix is down more than 200,000 subscribers, and the losses are set to continue.

netflix2
Netflix was expecting to add 2.5 million subscribers in the first quarter of 2022, but did not hit that target. The suspension of its business in Russia cost it 700,000 subscribers, and without that loss, Netflix would have added 500,000 paid global users, which is still well below its projections.

In the United States and Canada, Netflix lost 600,000 customers, due to recent pricing changes. Netflix said this subscriber loss was anticipated and in line with expectations.

In a letter to shareholders [PDF], Netflix said that revenue growth has "slowed considerably," with the company faulting "a large number of households sharing accounts" and "competition" as reasons for the drop off. Netflix estimates that its 222 million paying households are sharing with an additional 100 million households that are not being monetized.

Going forward, Netflix said that it plans to implement "more effective monetization of multi-household sharing," which suggests that Netflix will soon enact measures to prevent account sharing. Netflix in March began testing an extra payment for those who share their Netflix accounts with people outside their households.

In Netflix's current test markets of Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru, customers can pay an extra fee to share their accounts with two people outside of their household. When the test was launched, Netflix said that it was working to "understand the utility of these two features" before making changes in other countries.

Netflix has always included wording in its terms and services that prevents account usage across multiple households, but until now, the service has ignored password sharing. Netflix also recently enacted new price hikes, and a 4K streaming plan is priced at $20 per month.

It's worth noting that Netflix is the only streaming service that charges by streaming quality. In the U.S., Netflix charges $9.99 for the Basic no-HD plan that allows for streaming on a single device, $15.49 for a Standard HD plan that allows for two people to watch at the same time, and $19.99 for a Premium plan with Ultra HD streaming and support for four simultaneous viewers.

In the second quarter of 2022, Netflix is anticipating losing two million paid subscribers. To mitigate the continued losses, Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings said that in addition to addressing password sharing, the company is considering a more affordable, ad-supported plan within a year or two.

Tag: Netflix

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Lower Logo Feature 1

iPhone 17 Pro Coming Soon With These 14 New Features

Monday June 30, 2025 1:08 pm PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are less than three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max in September this year. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an...
Apple Watch Ultra Night Mode Screen

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Launching Later This Year With Two Key Upgrades

Wednesday July 2, 2025 1:13 pm PDT by
The long wait for an Apple Watch Ultra 3 appears to be nearly over, and it is rumored to feature both satellite connectivity and 5G support. Apple Watch Ultra's existing Night Mode In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is on track to launch this year with "significant" new features, including satellite connectivity, which would let you...
iPhone 17 Pro Lower Logo Magsafe

iPhone 17 Pro's New MagSafe Design Revealed in Leaked Photo

Wednesday July 2, 2025 8:37 am PDT by
The upcoming iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are rumored to have a slightly different MagSafe magnet layout compared to existing iPhone models, and a leaked photo has offered a closer look at the supposed new design. The leaker Majin Bu today shared a photo of alleged MagSafe magnet arrays for third-party iPhone 17 Pro cases. On existing iPhone models with MagSafe, the magnets form a...
Wi Fi WiFi General Feature

iOS 26 Adds a Useful New Wi-Fi Feature to Your iPhone

Wednesday July 2, 2025 6:36 am PDT by
iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 add a smaller yet useful Wi-Fi feature to iPhones and iPads. As spotted by Creative Strategies analyst Max Weinbach, sign-in details for captive Wi-Fi networks are now synced across iPhones and iPads running iOS 26 and iPadOS 26. For example, while Weinbach was staying at a Hilton hotel, his iPhone prompted him to fill in Wi-Fi details from his iPad that was already...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Max Battery Capacity Leaked

Thursday July 3, 2025 5:40 am PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature the biggest ever battery in an iPhone, according to the Weibo leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post, the leaker listed the battery capacities of the iPhone 11 Pro Max through to the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and added that the iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature a battery capacity of 5,000mAh: iPhone 11 Pro Max: 3,969mAh iPhone 12 Pro Max: 3,687mAh...
iOS 18

Apple Releases Second iOS 18.6 Public Beta

Tuesday July 1, 2025 10:19 am PDT by
Apple today seeded the second betas of upcoming iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 updates to public beta testers, with the betas coming just a day after Apple provided the betas to developers. Apple has also released a second beta of macOS Sequoia 15.6. Testers who have signed up for beta updates through Apple's beta site can download iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 from the Settings app on a compatible...
maxresdefault

New MacBook With A18 Pro Chip Spotted in Apple Code

Monday June 30, 2025 8:05 am PDT by
Apple is developing a MacBook with the A18 Pro chip, according to findings in backend code uncovered by MacRumors. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Earlier today, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that Apple is planning to launch a low-cost MacBook powered by an iPhone chip. The machine is expected to feature a 13-inch display, the A18 Pro chip, and color options...

Top Rated Comments

stellaclose Avatar
42 months ago
So the recent price hike had nothing to do with it...it was all the password sharing. Yeah, right.
Score: 195 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Dan Holmstock Avatar
42 months ago
No couldn't be the price increases and crappy content right? nah, it's just the sharers.
Score: 145 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jonnyb098 Avatar
42 months ago
Maybe if they stop raising the price constantly people would stop account sharing, just a thought.…
Score: 108 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Xenomorph Avatar
42 months ago
Well, I blame the subscriber losses on not having content people want while increasing the price like CRAZY.
Score: 82 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sorgo † Avatar
42 months ago
Awesome!! Keep sharing those accounts, everyone :)
Score: 66 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CthuluLemon Avatar
42 months ago
Account sharing has been a problem since Netflix started, it’s not suddenly causing them issues; Netflix doesn’t want to admit they have more competition and they’ve continued to raise prices despite the value of their service going down in a competitive market. If a higher percentage of users are account sharing, it’s almost certainly a by-product of the unjustifiable price increases despite a lack of quality content. People aren’t willing to pay an arm and a leg to a company that uses 90% of subscriber fees to produce crap nobody wants to watch.
Score: 42 Votes (Like | Disagree)