KPop Demon Hunters became Netflix’s most-watched movie ever, drawing 325.1 million views and 541.8 million hours viewed, while the platform closed 2025 with more than 325 million paid memberships (Netflix Q4 2025 earnings; Netflix Most Popular list). Full-year 2025 revenue reached $45.18 billion, up 16%, and net income rose 26% to $10.98 billion (Netflix 10-K, fiscal year 2025). Members watched a combined 191 billion hours across the two halves of 2025, with more than a third of viewing coming from non-English titles (Netflix “What We Watched” engagement reports, 2025). And Netflix’s ad-supported tier crossed 250 million monthly active viewers by May 2026, three years after launch. This analysis consolidates data from Netflix Investor Relations, the fiscal-year 2025 10-K, Netflix’s biannual engagement reports, Nielsen’s The Gauge, and 12 other primary sources to show where the streaming leader actually stands in 2026.
TL;DR
- Netflix ended 2025 with more than 325 million paid memberships, up from 301.6 million a year earlier (Netflix Q4 2025 earnings, 2026).
- Full-year 2025 revenue hit $45.18 billion, up 16%, with net income of $10.98 billion (Netflix 10-K, FY2025).
- Q1 2026 revenue reached $12.25 billion, up 16%, at a 32.3% operating margin (Netflix Q1 2026 shareholder letter, 2026).
- Ad revenue crossed roughly $1.5 billion in 2025 and targets about $3 billion in 2026 (The Current, 2026).
- The ad-supported tier passed 250 million monthly active viewers by May 2026, up from 190 million six months earlier (TheWrap, 2026).
- Content spend is guided to about $20 billion in 2026, up from roughly $18 billion in 2025 (Variety, 2026).
- Members watched 96 billion hours in the second half of 2025, after 95 billion-plus in the first half (Netflix “What We Watched,” 2025).
- KPop Demon Hunters became Netflix’s most-watched movie ever with 325.1 million views (Netflix Most Popular list, 2025).
- Squid Game Season 1 is the most-watched Netflix series ever at 265.2 million views in 90 days (Netflix Most Popular list).
- Netflix held 9.0% of US TV viewing time in January 2026, behind YouTube’s 12.7% (Nielsen, The Gauge, January 2026).
- The 2024 Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson bout drew 108 million viewers, Netflix’s most-streamed sporting event (Netflix, 2024).
1. Subscribers and Global Reach
Netflix stopped disclosing quarterly net subscriber additions after Q4 2024, so membership milestones now arrive as round-number thresholds rather than granular adds. The platform crossed 325 million paid memberships at the end of 2025, adding roughly 24 million net over the year from a base of 301.6 million. Europe, the Middle East, and Africa is now Netflix’s largest region by membership, having overtaken the US and Canada, while Asia-Pacific remains the fastest-growing.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Global paid memberships (end 2025) | 325 million-plus | Netflix Q4 2025 earnings |
| Global paid memberships (end 2024) | 301.6 million | Variety, 2025 |
| EMEA memberships (Q1 2026) | 101.13 million | Netflix Q1 2026 shareholder letter |
| UCAN memberships (Q1 2026) | 89.63 million | Netflix Q1 2026 shareholder letter |
| APAC memberships (Q1 2026) | 57.54 million | Netflix Q1 2026 shareholder letter |
| LATAM memberships (Q1 2026) | 53.33 million | Netflix Q1 2026 shareholder letter |
| Countries and regions available | 190-plus | Netflix Help Center, 2026 |
| Full-time employees (end 2025) | ~16,000 | Netflix 10-K, FY2025 |
Subscriber history for context: Netflix held roughly 231 million memberships at the end of 2022 and about 260 million at the end of 2023, meaning it added around 65 million in two years driven largely by the paid-sharing crackdown. For the market-wide streaming picture, see our video streaming statistics 2026.
2. Revenue, Profit, and Cash Flow
Netflix’s financial story in 2025 was margin expansion, not just growth. Revenue rose 16% to $45.18 billion while operating income jumped 28% to $13.33 billion, lifting the operating margin to 29.5% (Netflix 10-K, FY2025). Free cash flow of $9.46 billion gives the company room to fund a rising content bill and buy back stock without stress. Guidance for 2026 pushes revenue past $50 billion and free cash flow to a raised $12.5 billion.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Full-year 2025 revenue | $45.18 billion (+16%) | Netflix 10-K, FY2025 |
| 2025 operating income | $13.33 billion (+28%) | Netflix 10-K, FY2025 |
| 2025 net income | $10.98 billion (+26%) | Netflix 10-K, FY2025 |
| 2025 operating margin | 29.5% | Netflix 10-K, FY2025 |
| 2025 free cash flow | $9.46 billion (+37%) | Macrotrends, 2026 |
| Q1 2026 revenue | $12.25 billion (+16%) | Netflix Q1 2026 shareholder letter |
| 2026 revenue guidance | $50.7B to $51.7B (+12-14%) | CNBC / Netflix, 2026 |
| 2026 free cash flow guidance | $12.5 billion (raised from $11B) | Netflix Q1 2026 shareholder letter |
Regional revenue growth in 2025 skewed international: APAC streaming revenue grew 21%, EMEA 17%, UCAN 15%, and LATAM 11% (Netflix 10-K, FY2025).
3. The Advertising Business
Advertising is Netflix’s fastest-scaling line, though it still sits well under a tenth of total revenue. Ad revenue roughly 2.5x’d to about $1.5 billion in 2025 and is guided to double again toward $3 billion in 2026 (The Current, 2026). The reach story is stronger than the revenue story: the ad tier now claims most new sign-ups in markets where it is offered, and its monthly active viewer count is climbing faster than the subscriber base overall.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Ad revenue (2025) | ~$1.5 billion (2.5x YoY) | The Current, 2026 |
| Ad revenue target (2026) | ~$3 billion | The Current, 2026 |
| Ad-tier monthly active viewers (May 2026) | 250 million-plus | TheWrap, 2026 |
| Ad-tier monthly active viewers (6 months prior) | 190 million | TheWrap, 2026 |
| Ad plan share of new sign-ups (ad markets) | Over 60% | Netflix Q1 2026 shareholder letter |
| Advertiser base (end 2025) | 4,000-plus brands (+70% YoY) | The Current, 2026 |
| US households on ad-supported tier | 45% | Subscription Insider, 2026 |
Netflix defines a monthly active viewer as an account-holder who watches at least one minute of ad-supported content per month, scaled by estimated household size. For the broader ad-tech and generative shift, see our generative AI statistics 2026.
4. Content Spend and Pricing
Two levers fund Netflix’s margin: raising prices and controlling how fast content spend grows. Content spend is set to climb to about $20 billion in 2026, the company’s largest single-year commitment ever, up from roughly $18 billion in 2025 (Variety, 2026). Prices moved up across every US plan in March 2026, and the ad tier saw its first-ever increase, signaling Netflix believes it has pricing power even at the low end.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 content spend (guidance) | ~$20 billion | Variety, 2026 |
| 2025 content spend | ~$18 billion (+10%) | Variety, 2025 |
| US Standard with Ads (2026) | $8.99 / month | The Hollywood Reporter, 2026 |
| US Standard (2026) | $19.99 / month | The Hollywood Reporter, 2026 |
| US Premium (2026) | $26.99 / month | The Hollywood Reporter, 2026 |
| Extra-member fee (ad-free) | $9.99 / month | The Hollywood Reporter, 2026 |
Live sports and events, including WWE Monday Night Raw, NFL Christmas Day games, and marquee boxing, account for much of the new spend. See how this reshapes theatrical windows in our box office statistics 2026.
5. Engagement: What the World Watched
Netflix’s biannual engagement reports cover roughly 99% of all viewing, making them the most complete public dataset on streaming behavior. Members watched 96 billion hours in the second half of 2025, up about 1 billion from the first half, with more than a third of all viewing coming from non-English titles (Netflix “What We Watched,” 2025). Anime alone exceeded 4% of total viewing in the back half of the year, a category Netflix keeps expanding.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Hours viewed, H2 2025 | 96 billion | Netflix “What We Watched” H2 2025 |
| Hours viewed, H1 2025 | 95 billion-plus | Netflix “What We Watched” H1 2025 |
| Non-English share of viewing | Over one-third | Netflix “What We Watched” H2 2025 |
| Anime share of viewing (H2 2025) | Over 4% | Netflix “What We Watched” H2 2025 |
| Wednesday Season 2 views (H2 2025) | 124 million | Netflix “What We Watched” H2 2025 |
| Happy Gilmore 2 views (H2 2025) | 135 million | Netflix “What We Watched” H2 2025 |
| Adolescence views (H1 2025) | 145 million | Netflix “What We Watched” H1 2025 |
| Back in Action views (H1 2025) | 165 million | Netflix “What We Watched” H1 2025 |
Non-English demand is durable, not a one-hit fluke: 10 of the 25 most-watched series in the first half of 2025 were non-English. For the youngest audience’s habits, see our Gen Z media statistics 2026.
6. Record-Breakers and Live Events
Netflix’s all-time leaderboard is now topped by titles that barely existed as franchises three years ago. KPop Demon Hunters overtook Red Notice to become Netflix’s most-watched movie ever, logging 325.1 million views and 541.8 million hours (Netflix Most Popular list, 2025). On the series side, Squid Game’s grip endures: its first season remains the most-watched Netflix show of all time, and Season 3 debuted at No. 1 in 93 countries.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| KPop Demon Hunters (most-watched movie ever) | 325.1 million views | What’s on Netflix / Netflix data, 2025 |
| KPop Demon Hunters (H2 2025 window) | 482 million views | Netflix “What We Watched” H2 2025 |
| Squid Game Season 1 (most-watched series ever) | 265.2 million views | What’s on Netflix / Netflix data, 2025 |
| Wednesday Season 1 | 252.1 million views | What’s on Netflix / Netflix data, 2025 |
| Squid Game Season 2 | 192.6 million views | What’s on Netflix / Netflix data, 2025 |
| Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson (most-streamed sporting event) | 108 million viewers | DIRECTV Insider / Netflix, 2024 |
| WWE view hours (H1 2025, all events) | 280 million-plus | Netflix “What We Watched” H1 2025 |
Squid Game Season 3 debuted No. 1 across 93 countries with 60.1 million views in its first days, the widest simultaneous launch Netflix has recorded (TheWrap, 2025). For how AI is entering production pipelines, see our AI in Hollywood statistics 2026.
7. Streaming Share and the Competitive Picture
Netflix is the most-watched paid streaming service, but it no longer leads all of streaming. YouTube held 12.7% of US TV viewing time in January 2026 versus Netflix’s 9.0%, per Nielsen’s The Gauge, and streaming collectively set a record 47.0% of TV viewing that month. The competitive frame has shifted from Netflix-vs-cable to Netflix-vs-YouTube for attention.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Netflix share of US TV viewing (Jan 2026) | 9.0% | Nielsen, The Gauge, 2026 |
| YouTube share of US TV viewing (Jan 2026) | 12.7% | Nielsen, The Gauge, 2026 |
| Total streaming share of US TV (Jan 2026) | 47.0% (record) | Nielsen, The Gauge, 2026 |
| Total streaming share of US TV (Dec 2025) | 47.5% | Nielsen, The Gauge, 2025 |
| Cable share of US TV (Mar 2026) | 21.4% | Nielsen, The Gauge, 2026 |
| Netflix market capitalization (July 2026) | ~$310 billion | companiesmarketcap, 2026 |
Netflix’s market cap of roughly $310 billion in mid-2026 reflected a sharp pullback from 2025 highs, even as revenue and margins kept expanding (companiesmarketcap and stockanalysis both placed it near $310 billion in July 2026).
Summary: Netflix by the Numbers
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Global paid memberships (end 2025) | 325 million-plus | Netflix Q4 2025 earnings |
| Full-year 2025 revenue | $45.18 billion (+16%) | Netflix 10-K, FY2025 |
| 2025 net income | $10.98 billion (+26%) | Netflix 10-K, FY2025 |
| 2025 operating margin | 29.5% | Netflix 10-K, FY2025 |
| 2025 free cash flow | $9.46 billion | Macrotrends, 2026 |
| Q1 2026 revenue | $12.25 billion (+16%) | Netflix Q1 2026 shareholder letter |
| Q1 2026 operating margin | 32.3% | Netflix Q1 2026 shareholder letter |
| 2026 revenue guidance | $50.7B to $51.7B | Netflix Q4 2025 earnings |
| Ad revenue (2025) | ~$1.5 billion | The Current, 2026 |
| Ad-tier monthly active viewers (May 2026) | 250 million-plus | TheWrap, 2026 |
| 2026 content spend (guidance) | ~$20 billion | Variety, 2026 |
| Hours viewed, H2 2025 | 96 billion | Netflix “What We Watched” H2 2025 |
| Non-English share of viewing | Over one-third | Netflix “What We Watched” H2 2025 |
| KPop Demon Hunters (most-watched movie ever) | 325.1 million views | What’s on Netflix / Netflix data, 2025 |
| Squid Game Season 1 (most-watched series ever) | 265.2 million views | What’s on Netflix / Netflix data, 2025 |
| Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson viewers (2024) | 108 million | DIRECTV Insider / Netflix, 2024 |
| Netflix share of US TV viewing (Jan 2026) | 9.0% | Nielsen, The Gauge, 2026 |
| Total streaming share of US TV (Jan 2026) | 47.0% | Nielsen, The Gauge, 2026 |
| Full-time employees (end 2025) | ~16,000 | Netflix 10-K, FY2025 |
| Market capitalization (July 2026) | ~$310 billion | companiesmarketcap, 2026 |
Methodology and Sources
We compiled these figures from Netflix’s own investor filings and engagement reports, cross-referenced against Nielsen measurement data and reputable trade press, prioritizing 2025-2026 disclosures and citing each report by name.
- Netflix, Form 10-K, fiscal year 2025 (SEC filing, February 2026)
- Netflix, Q1 2026 Shareholder Letter (Netflix Investor Relations, April 2026)
- Netflix, “What We Watched: The Second Half of 2025” (Netflix Engagement Report, January 2026)
- Netflix, “What We Watched: The First Half of 2025” (Netflix Engagement Report, 2025)
- Nielsen, The Gauge (Nielsen, monthly US TV viewing, 2025-2026)
- What’s on Netflix, Most-Watched Series and Movies of All Time (based on Netflix Most Popular list, 2025)
- Netflix Q4 2025 earnings coverage, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety (2026)
- Netflix advertising data, The Current and TheWrap (2026)
- Netflix US pricing, The Hollywood Reporter (2026)
- Netflix free cash flow, Macrotrends; market cap, companiesmarketcap (2026, cross-referenced with stockanalysis.com)
- Live events, DIRECTV Insider (2024-2026)
Data watch: Netflix publishes its next “What We Watched” engagement report in mid-2026 (covering the first half of the year) and reports Q2 2026 earnings in July 2026; Nielsen’s The Gauge refreshes monthly; the fiscal-year 2026 10-K is expected in early 2027. Figures on this page will move as those land.
Last updated: July 17, 2026.
We review and update this page quarterly as new data is published.