Netflix gained 4.4 million subscribers in its third quarter to take its paid membership base to 214 million worldwide, the streaming giant announced on Tuesday in its shareholder letter.
The Q3 shareholder letter also noted that Squid Game became its biggest title ever. The South Korean show that proved to be a game-changer for the streaming platform, amassed over 142 million household views in the first four weeks since its release on September 17, with the majority of views coming from outside its home market. It also ranked as the streamer’s top program in 94 countries, including the US.
The show, Netflix noted, has “pierced the cultural zeitgeist” to create a global fanbase, that spawned a Saturday Night Live skit and TikTok clips and memes with more than 42 billion views.
Speaking about the success of the show during an earnings interview, Netflix Co-CEO and Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said “the stories of the world can increasingly come from anywhere in the world,” given the prevalence of subtitling and dubbing.
Other titles that proved to be successful for Netflix included Spain’s Money Heist, which was the platform’s first non-English language title, with 69 million household views and Britain’s Sex Education, with 55 million household views.
Sarandos noted that non-English language content viewing has grown three times since Netflix started producing content in 2008.
“We are now producing local TV and film in approximately 45 countries and have built deep relationships with creative communities around the world. While the goal of our local content executives is always to create locally authentic stories that will resonate in their country, Netflix is a global,
direct-to-consumer service which enables creators to reach broader audiences,” said the shareholder letter.
Sarandos added that the fourth quarter, from October to December, as well as the first quarter of 2022, will witness an expansive local title slate, including a spin-off version of Call My Agent from India and the Italian film Hand of God, among others.
Netflix also announced a shift to reporting the hours viewed for their titles rather than the number of accounts that choose to watch them, to better match TV viewing metrics used across the world. It further proposes to release regular title metrics outside of earnings reports.
Netflix original films, that the OTT platform introduced three years ago, continue to perform well although not on par with the shows. Films like Sweet Girl, Kissing Booth 3, and the German-language film Blood Red Sky have garnered 68 million, 59 million, and 53 million views, respectively.
In the earnings interview, the company’s Chief Operations Officer Greg Peters also spoke about Netflix’s plans to foray into online gaming, and its importance in relation to mobile engagement. The idea, Peters said, is to provide “interactive storytelling” through games – a build up from the current form of “linear storytelling.”
Netflix announced its expansion into gaming, in July, that will be included as part of users’ existing subscription at no additional cost. The company also hired Mike Verdu as its new Vice President of Game Development.
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“The vast majority of our members engage with us on a mobile device,” said Peters. “We think that this connects really well with the other work that we are doing. We are creating all these universes and worlds, and characters and story lines, and we can attach to the passion and fandom that our members have on viewing those on the video side with game experiences. That will allow them to go deeper and explore spaces that they would not have otherwise seen. Over time, we will try and bring those two closer, and influence each other,” he added.
In September, Netflix introduced mobile games in Poland, Spain, and Italy. While the first two titles launched in Poland were based on the show Stranger Things, the recent set of games released are independent titles.