First-time Indian Netflix users helped the platform grow its global mobile app installs by 200% week-on-week during StreamFest: Sensor Tower

• Netflix had hosted StreamFest, a weekend where it made its platform free-for-all between December 5 and 6.
• The strategy aimed at bringing new users onto the platform seems to have worked as its mobile app downloads globally saw an uptick of around 200% week-on-week, owing to a spike in Indian users downloading Netflix's mobile app.

Last weekend, Netflix hosted StreamFest, a free trial of its platform in India. The aim was to bring new users to the platform and give them a taste of their content. If data from mobile analytics firm Sensor Tower is to be believed, the strategy led to a surge of first-time adoption of its mobile app here. Between December 5 and 6, the Netflix mobile app reached approximately 3.6 million installs globally, a growth of 200% over the previous weekend.

Sensor Tower's data further revealed that Netflix’s installs in November had remained relatively flat from October across both app stores worldwide. However, owing to StreamFest, the platform's downloads in December are off to a supercharged start.

There was a 190% jump in first-time installs from approximately 551,000 on December 1 to about 1.6 million installs on December 2, all owing to an uptick of downloads from users in India. In the first six days of December, the app has seen over 9 million installs globally, more than half of the 16.7 million first-time worldwide installs it saw in November.

However, while opening up the platform for free to users did lead to an increase in downloads, it remains to be seen if these users stay back on the platform. Sensor Tower data also revealed that till date, India has seen over 59 million installs.