Netflix has grown to be the number one streaming service in the entire world. However, the platform recently left customers furious over the way it chose to celebrate its highest-growth quarter in its 27-year history.
Netflix raised its prices after adding more subscribers in one quarter than ever before.
Netflix ended 2024 on a high noteto say the least. From season two of “Squid Game” to live events like the boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul and Beyonce’s Christmas Day halftime performance, the platform saw its subscriber base go through the roof in the final quarter of the year.
The company is notoriously cagey about its numbers, but industry analysts expect the company to report revenue of $10.1 billion with a $4.21 earnings per share. One analyst went so far as to call their Q4 performance “near flawless.”
Netflix celebrated this success by raising its standard subscription to a staggering $17.99.
This is certainly nothing new, but the halcyon days when streaming was cheaper than having cable are pretty much gone, and Netflix is a prime example. The platform has been steadily increasing its prices for years now; however, its newest pricing tiers left many customers with full-on sticker shock.
Its cheapest subscription, which includes ads just like regular TV, is going from $6.99 to $7.99, which is pretty bold given that you’re already sitting through commercials.
Its standard subscription, which is ad-free, is going from an already high $15.49 to $17.99, and its premium plan, which allows higher resolution and the bandwidth for multiple accounts to be streaming at once for households with multiple viewers, will now be $24.99 a month.
Many Netflix users are furious about the price hikes.
Netflix jacking up its prices is practically a yearly tradition at this point, and it has never been popular. One price hike in 2016 even resulted in a class action lawsuit brought by a customer who subscribed when the company ran a “$7.99 for life” promotional rate.
Still, the current rates are pretty staggering, not just because they are more than double the price the platform was a bit over a decade ago, but because, as evidenced by the Q4 numbers, it’s not like the platform is exactly suffering. It has also been criticized for years for its lack of quality programming, leaving many to feel it’s not worth the price.
This time around; however, the price hikes have struck some online as kind of suspicious. The increase came on the very first day of Donald Trump’s new presidency — not 24 hours after he was inaugurated before a front row composed not of elected officials, but the tech industry billionaires who officially transformed themselves into oligarchs this election cycle.
It’s hard not to also notice that the costs of both gasoline and eggs — two of the economic factors most cited by voters as the reason they pulled the level for the new president — soared on that very same day too. Though, in fairness, intensely cold weather and the growing bird flu problem likely had an impact on this too, as did the slight .14% increase in inflation in December.
Regardless, the “greedflation” of recent years has made it clear that corporations have no problem price-gouging customers for sport. With a new administration unlikely to have any interest in stopping it, especially when it comes from the tech industry that is bankrolling himthe next price hike is surely not far off.
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.
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