Netflix ended 2025 with more than 325 million paid subscribers globally, the company revealed in its Q4 shareholder letter, a rare update after stepping back from regular subscriber reporting.
And almost no one was expecting it. Netflix has largely stopped publishing subscriber counts, choosing instead to focus on revenue and profit as its core performance metrics. Executives had said updates would come “at pertinent intervals,” and this quarter turned out to be one of them.
The milestone landed alongside a strong earnings report. Netflix posted 56 cents per share on $12.157 billion in revenue, beating Wall Street expectations. Revenue grew 17.6% year-on-year, helped largely by the continued ramp-up of its ad-supported tier. Across all of 2025, advertising revenue passed $1.5 billion, according to the company.
Emmanuel Umahi
Q1–Q3: Setting the Stage for Q4
Looking at Netflix’s performance over the first three quarters of 2025 shows a steady trajectory toward the 325 million subscriber milestone. At the start of the year, Netflix had around 300 million paid subscribers, generating roughly $3.3 billion in operating income and $2.9 billion in net income in Q1. By Q2, subscriber growth continued, reaching an estimated 312.5 million globally, while operating income rose to about $3.78 billion and net income hit $3.125 billion.
