Year-over-year growth for the streaming company rose 16.3% to $7.483 billion, amounting to higher revenues than in the second quarter ($7.342 billion), despite a higher percentage of growth (19.4%) in the previous quarter. The company gained 4.38 million paid subscribers in the period ending Sept. 30 after projecting only 3.5 million in gains.
Netflix credited the gains to pandemic-related production delays that lightened the company’s slate in the first two quarters, as well as and the third-quarter release of “Squid Game,” which is ranked No. 1 in 94 countries where Netflix is available.
Netflix also announced that it would shift to reporting on hours viewed for its originals instead of the number of accounts that select them, as the company currently does. In late September, Netflix Co-Chief Executive and Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos revealed the company's first top 10 rankings by hours viewed at Vox Media’s Code Conference in Beverly Hills, a decision he indicated was an effort “to be more transparent with talent, with the market” after years without sharing that data.
Reporting that the Asia-Pacific region contributed the most to subscriber growth for the second quarter in a row with 2.2 million paid net adds, the company offered a bullish forecast for overall fourth-quarter subscriber additions, predicting a total of 8.5 million in the final months of 2021.
