Netflix smashed expectations, adding way more subscribers than Wall Street could have hoped for

• Netflix kicked off big tech earnings on Thursday, and massively delivered on its new viewer data.
• Its new subscribers grew by 9.33 million worldwide — almost double what Wall Street had expected.

Netflix once again proved it wasn't just a Covid big-hitter.

The company raked in $9.37 billion in revenue in its fiscal first quarter, it said Thursday, while earnings per share came to $5.28.

And its most-scrutinized number, the amount of new subscribers it gained, grew by 9.33 million in the quarter worldwide. That's almost double Wall Street's expectations for 4.8 million new watchers, as quoted by Bloomberg.

While expectations were high going in the earnings, with the stock up about 25% this year, Netflix had impressed shareholders by posting blowout numbers in January, too.

The company has been cracking down on password sharing — leading to new signups — and viewers have also been signing up for a cheaper ad-supported option. That helped lift 2023's subscription numbers to the highest since 2020 when viewers restricted to their couches because of the Covid pandemic flocked to the site and its shows like "Tiger King."

The numbers also show that Netflix's crackdown on password sharing isn't driving people to other streaming services. In fact, one major competitor, Disney, said it's tightening password-sharing restrictions beginning this summer, with a full rollout planned for the fall.