Netflix subscribers and revenue by country

Following Netflix’s recent announcement that it had suffered its first loss of US subscribers and had failed to add its target of 5 million international subscribers in the first half of this year (adding just 2.7 million), we decided to revisit our study on Netflix subscriber numbers and revenue totals.

Previously, we had taken Netflix’s end-of-year totals to determine the figures. At the end of last year, Netflix had 139 million subscribers – and counting. These subscribers generated a revenue of $15.79 billion, with $7.6 billion of this coming from its 58 million subscribers in the US and the remainder coming from its 80.7 million international subscribers. But with this recent dip in growth, how does this affect the projections for 2019? 

Below, we’ve broken down the subscription numbers in 50 countries to calculate the average revenue Netflix is generating in each of these locations.

How much revenue is Netflix earning in the countries with the most subscribers?

It’s perhaps no surprise that it’s the US generating the most revenue for Netflix. However, with subscriber levels waning, it may only generate Netflix just less than $8.6 billion in 2019. As previously mentioned, the US generated Netflix $7.6 billion in 2018, which would mean a year-on-year growth in the US of 12.4 percent, compared to a 24.27 percent increase from 2017 to 2018.

Nevertheless, international countries could recuperate some of the revenue, with Australia’s estimated revenue growing from $1.27 billion to $1.54 billion, the UK from $1.1 billion to $1.34 billion, Brazil from $961.8 million to $1.16 billion, and Canada from $712.9 million to $860.6 million.

Plus, with the ever-growing subscription base in these countries, and the recent price hikes in both Canada and the UK, these figures may rise even more over the next year.

What revenue could Netflix be generating by the end of 2019?

With everything being so heavily estimated, it’s difficult to say. However, based on the current growth levels over the first part of the year (and based on last year’s monthly average revenue per customer – which should be higher for 2019, in theory), Netflix could generate $19.5 billion in 2019, almost $4 billion more than 2018.

You can also see whether or not these revenue-generating countries are getting good value for their money in our study on which countries pay the most and least for Netflix.

Methodology

As Netflix doesn’t reveal the subscriber numbers in each country (aside from the US), all of the subscriber counts are based on estimates.

The $9.43 average monthly revenue per international membership is derived from Netflix’s year-end revenue calculations for 2018. The $11.40 average monthly membership and the revenue for 2018 for the US are taken from these year-end calculations, too. The US subscriber and revenue figures for the first six months of 2019 are taken from Netflix’s recent financial report. To calculate the figures for the second half of 2019, we have used the 2.76 percent increase seen in subscriber figures over the first half of 2019.

To calculate the subscriber and revenue amounts in each international country for 2019, we have based this on the 13.23 percent growth seen in subscriber figures across all international countries in the first half of this year.

Due to the growing number of subscribers and the use of an average monthly revenue for all international countries, the overall revenue may be higher than Netflix’s reported figures for 2018 and 2019.

Sources

View the full data set and list of sources here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1J2S6XJZyq__AtEv3cs-zA1-FCfpIzeHDrYsmMGthjRY/edit?usp=sharinghttps://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17KyqNGvXRL4aIyXsciXJafD-vqLSDhJGtAYd_GJM-Go/edit#gid=0