Netflix viewership down

A report on Cord Cutters News this week says that Netflix viewership has dropped over the same time last year by around 17%.

That's a pretty sizable drop, and it reflects 7 billion viewing hours lost, according to the report by Shelby Brown:

The streaming giant’s self-reported data showed time spent watching movies and TV shows on the service declined by more than 7 billion hours in comparison to 2022 – about a 17% decrease in audience engagement year-over-year.

This comes after Netflix spent 2023 trying to drive subscriptions with an eye towards increased profitability . The streamer expanded its initiative to stop password sharing, which despite early backlash, ended up yielding an influx of new customers. It also raised the price of its premium plan in an effort to drive users to its cheaper ad-based tier.

Why the drop? No one knows for sure. I think it's because there is so much available elsewhere that Netflix is not the "must have" service it used to be. I dropped Netflix years ago, and only ever subscribe when there's a new feature I want to test, or if there is something that I really want to watch, such as when they carried MST3K or when a new Dave Chappelle special is released.

My Streaming Life doesn't involve Netflix, for the most part. And it's a smaller part of many people's lives. If you spend a lot of time on Netflix, consider some of the free alternatives. You may find you don't need to put up with the price increases and limited content either.