Netflix published its latest financial report yesterday (April 18), revealing a strong 9.33-million bump in new subscribers for Q1 2024.

This 16% uptick brings its total count to nearly 270 million global subscribers as of March 31. However, this sharing of subscriber data is on the chopping block. Starting next year, Netflix will no longer report these numbers as part of its quarterly earnings reports—opting instead to only occasionally reveal milestones in membership expansion.

While subscriber data was a good indication of growth in the streamer’s early phases of existence (when there was minimal profit or revenue), Netflix now feels that it has reached a stage where it can shift focus to revenue and operating margin as its “primary financial metrics” for measuring success. 

It will also continue to look at engagement (the amount of time people are spending on its platform)—which is tracked by the bi-annual data dumps it announced in December. “At the root of strong and enduring engagement is fandom,” the streamer noted in its Q1 earnings report. “It’s why our product and marketing are all designed to fuel fandom by helping members discover their next obsession.”

For this latest financial period, Netflix reported US$9.3 billion in revenue (up 15% from Q1 2023), with a profit of US$2.6 billion (up 54%).

The company attributed this growth to “new revenue streams” such as its cheaper AVOD tier and the paid extra member feature that was introduced as part of last year’s password-sharing crackdown. 

In a regional breakdown, subscriptions in EMEA increased by 2.92 million this quarter, followed by the US/Canada (2.53 million), APAC (2.16 million) and LatAm (1.72 million).

Among Q1’s top-performing new titles, Netflix highlighted live-action series Avatar: The Last Airbender (pictured), which has racked up 63.8 million views since its February 22 launch; as well as PG-13 feature film Damsel generating more than 120 million views since premiering on March 8. With new movie boss Dan Lin on board, the streamer also recently reorganized its film team under a new system based on genre.

Image courtesy of Robert Falconer/Netflix