In some rather unexpected news, Netflix has reported a dramatic subscriber plunge after a record period of growth during the coronavirus pandemic.
That’s right, although many of us may feel as addicted to streaming services as ever, it turns out the stats beg to differ.
As reported by The Guardian, Netflix added 4 million new subscribers in the first quarter of 2021, which was 2 million less than its original estimate of 6 million and a quarter of the 8 million it added in the last three months of 2020.
On top of that, the company only expects to add about 1 million subscribers in the current quarter, which would mark its slowest growth on record.
According to The Guardian, the subscriber plunge comes after a period of immense growth for Netflix, which added more than 36 million subscribers in 2020 as the pandemic led to lockdowns within many countries.
Now that life is (slowly) returning to normal, it appears that the pandemic boom has run its course.
In a letter to shareholders obtained by The Guardian, a representative for Netflix attributed the fall in subscribers to a slowdown in the production of new content due to COVID-19.
“The extraordinary events of Covid-19 led to unprecedented membership growth in 2020, as it pulled forward growth from 2021, and delayed production across every region,” the representative said.
“As we discussed in past letters, these dynamics are also contributing to a lighter content slate in the first half of 2021, and hence, we believe slower membership growth.”
Despite the decidedly grim results, Netflix does have a stacked offering of original content coming later this year. Not only will new seasons of popular shows like Sex Education and You be dropping, but the company also has some star-studded original films on the way too.
The upcoming movies include Red Notice, starring Gal Gadot, Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds and Don’t Look Up, with Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanchett, Timothée Chalamet and Meryl Streep.
Now if that’s not enough to lure back subscribers, we don’t know what is.
For more on this topic, head over to the Film & TV Observer.
Check out the 2021 Netflix film preview:
