Netflix just dropped some major price hikes that’s got subscribers peeved and looking to cancel their subscription. That’s because the streaming giant is cranking up its prices across all U.S. subscription tiers, and here’s the real kicker—they’re doing it while celebrating their biggest subscriber growth in company history.
The standard ad-free plan is jumping from $15.49 to $17.99, while the ad-supported tier is getting a modest $1 bump to $7.99. Premium subscribers will experience a $2 increase, bringing their monthly cost to $24.99 for 4K streaming quality. Following the announcement, Netflix shares shot up 12% in value.
According to ABC News, since 2011, there have been four Netflix price hikes, with the two most recent ones occurring in a span of under two years.
It turns out that Netflix just wrapped up 2024’s final quarter with 19 million new subscribers, pushing their global audience to a whopping 302 million. They’ve also smashed through the $10 billion revenue ceiling for the first time in a single quarter.
Behind this massive growth surge is the phenomenal success of “Squid Game” Season 2, which is on track to become Netflix’s most-watched original series ever. They’ve also scored big with their holiday flick “Carry On” and the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson boxing match.
Unfortunately for us consumers, this price hike follows similar moves by competitors Disney+, Hulu, and Max, who all bumped up their prices last year. Netflix frames this increase as an investment in their future, promising to pour these extra dollars into creating more bingeworthy content.
But that doesn’t mean that customers are happy—searches for “cancel Netflix” spiked 100 percent worldwide on Google on January 21st after the Netflix price hike announcement.
Will you be cancelling Netflix because of these price hikes? Personally, I no longer subscribe to Netflix. Over the past year or so, I’ve felt that other platforms like AppleTV+ and Hulu are producing better original content than Netflix, which led me to cancel Netflix about a year ago.