While some users have canceled their Netflix accounts after a crackdown on password sharing began, the move appears to be paying off for the company. According to data from analytics firm Antenna, Netflix saw account sign-ups spike after the rule went into effect in the US and several other regions in late May.
antenna says Netflix had the four largest days of subscriptions in the US in the four and a half years it tracks this data. On May 26th and 27th, there were nearly 100,000 sign-ups each day. During each of the four days, the company saw an average of 73,000 new memberships, according to Antenna, which noted that number was 102 percent higher than the previous 60-day average.
While account cancellations spiked in that period, Antenna said the number of subscriptions far outpaced those numbers. Antenna noted that this was the largest increase in new Netflix account sign-ups in the US since the COVID-19 shutdown began in March and April of 2020.
It should be noted that this is not official data from Netflix. We’ll have a clearer idea of how the account sharing changes will start to affect Netflix’s bottom line when the company reports its next quarterly earnings, likely in mid-July. But as Yahoo Finance Notes, Netflix’s share price rose after Antenna released the data. Netflix declined to comment to Engadget regarding the Antenna analysis.
Netflix began cracking down on account sharing on a trial basis in Latin America before implementing the new rules in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain in February. In the US, subscribers now need to pay an additional $8 per month for viewers who access the account from outside the primary home, though you can still watch when you’re away from home. Users have the option to transfer an existing profile to a new account to keep all their preferences and data intact.
Update 1PM ET 6/9: Added Netflix response to request for comment.
