Netflix has once again kept the pedal to the metal on subscriber additions, bringing in 7.41 million net new subscribers, well ahead of its 6.35 million net adds forecast for the first quarter.
The subscriber growth was also ahead of Wall Street consensus, which had Netflix only slightly beating its own forecast. A trend of Netflix well outpacing its subscriber forecasts is emerging.
Netflix added about 8.3 million net new subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2017 after it predicted it would add 6.3 million. And in the quarter before that, Netflix added 5.3 million subscribers after predicting it would add 4.4 million.
“The variance relative to our guidance was driven by continued strong acquisition trends across the globe which we attribute to the growing breadth of our content and the worldwide adoption of internet entertainment,” Netflix wrote in an earnings release.
Netflix now has a total of 125 million subscribers after adding nearly 2 million new U.S. subscribers and nearly 5.5 million new international subscribers. The growth likely comes as somewhat of a relief to investors, who may have been concerned that recent price increases could have led to elevated churn.
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Netflix’s revenue and earnings per share came out right in line with analyst estimates. Wall Street was predicting that Netflix’s first-quarter revenues will come in around $3.69 billion on earnings per share of $0.64, both slightly ahead of the company’s forecast.
Streaming revenue represented an overwhelming $3.6 billion of Netflix’s total $3.7 billion in revenue. The company said the 43% growth in revenue was the fastest quarterly rate of growth ever for its streaming business. It attributed the rise to a 25% increase in average paid streaming memberships and a 14% rise in average selling price.
The results caused Netflix’s stock to go up more than 6% in after-hours trading.