Live sport credited for Netflix subscriber surge as sign-ups hit 325m
Netflix has credited its investment in live sport for a surge in sign-ups as quarterly revenue rose to beyond $12bn.
Results for Q4 saw income rise by nearly 30 per cent $2.4bn while subscriber numbers jumped to 325m.
Netflix was the exclusive global broadcaster of the bout between influencer Jake Paul and former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, while the streaming giant has a partnership with the NFL to show Christmas Day American football.
The platform, which is looking to purchase Warner Bros Discovery, also broadcasts live golf events, and stated that the Christmas Day NFL broadcast helped drive more than 400,000 subscribers in 2025.
Full-year net income for the Stranger Things streamer hit $11bn on revenues of over $45bn but shares fell by seven per cent in Frankfurt early on Wednesday after the platform insisted it would continue to pursue a deal for Warner Bros Discovery.
Netflix subs boost
“Historically, Netflix has not shied away from doing what’s right for long-term growth even at the expense of near-term negative share price reaction,” Michael Ashley Schulman, chief investment officer of Running Point Capital Advisors, told Reuters. “That seems to be the case again.”
The company said live sport was an example of where “any given hour of entertainment has the potential to deliver outsized value”, while year-on-year advertising revenue doubled to $1.5bn.
The coming year will see the World Baseball Classic shown on Netflix in a country-specific broadcast across Japan, while some have suggested a successful Warner Bros Discovery acquisition could see the streamer get the rights to the Champions League and Olympic Games through the back door.
The surge in subscribers, partly due to sport, comes amid a boom in investment in sport from streamers.
Apple will this year show Formula 1 for the first time having successfully won the rights to the motorsport series across North America.
Amazon Prime, too, has a wide portfolio of sports rights, including Champions League Tuesdays.