Netflix Teases Price Increase in 2026, Predicts Ad Revenue Will Double
A pricing increase is in Netflix’s future. During the streamer’s fourth quarter earnings report for 2025, which was released on Tuesday, Netflix predicted “increases in membership and pricing” for 2026.
The report did not indicate which countries and territories would be impacted by the increase.
Netflix’s ad revenue is also expected to double in 2026. This prediction comes after the notable strides the streamer made last year. After only its third year selling advertising, Netflix ended 2025 with $1.5 billion in ad revenue, which is two and a half times the revenue generated in 2024. Overall, Netflix’s 2026 revenue is expected to hit around $52 billion, which would mark a 12% to 14% year-over-year increase.
The streamer noted that revenue in the fourth quarter of 2025 grew by 18% year-over-year. That was primarily driven by membership growth, increased ad revenues and — you guessed it — higher pricing. Revenue was 1% higher than Netflix’s previously reported guidance despite “unfavorable” foreign exchange movements, the earnings report noted. Stronger-than-forecasted membership growth and ad sales were the reasons behind this bump.
Netflix also revealed that its audience is approaching one billion people globally and that it has over 325 million paid subscribers.
Subscribers watched 96 billion hours on Netflix in the second half of 2025, which is 2% (and 1.5 billion hours) more than they watched in the second half of 2024. The back half of the year also saw a 1% increase in viewership compared to the first half of the year due to the premiere of several major titles.
Not only did “Stranger Things” conclude in the second half of 2025, but the back half of last year also included new seasons of “Wednesday,” “Emily in Paris” and “Monster.” It also was when “KPop Demon Hunters” premiered, which was far and away the most-watched Netflix title of 2025. Rumi, Zoey and Mira’s adventure accounted for 482 millions views, and the movie was more than three and a half times more widely watched than the most-watched Netflix original TV show of the year (“Wednesday” Season 2).
Despite the viewership growth when it comes to Netflix originals, the second half of 2025 did see a year-over-year decline when it came to library (i.e. non-Netflix) content. This decrease was slightly expected. As a result of the WGA strike, Netflix ramped up its volume of licensed content in 2023 and 2024. Once the strikes resolved and new production resumed, Netflix then scaled back on licensing second-run content.
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