Netflix's password crackdown leads to massive subscription spike

Ever since Netflix announced it would start cracking down on password sharing, the movie streaming company has received a lot of blowback from customers.

But, the numbers don't lie: The unpopular move from Netflix seems to have worked in the company's favor.

According to a new report from subscription analytics firm Antenna, Netflix's recent move blocking customers from sharing their account with people outside of their household has resulted in a huge boost in new signups for the service.

In fact, a two day period following Netflix's roll out of the password sharing change last month saw the largest number of new Netflix account signups since Antenna began tracking subscriber data in 2019.

The last time Netflix sign-ups spiked in a similar fashion was in April and May 2020, but the post password sharing crackdown sign-ups have even exceeded that.

That's right: Netflix received a larger influx of new users after blocking account sharing than it did when nearly everyone was home watching TV during the COVID lockdowns of Spring 2020.

Netflix received nearly 100,000 daily sign-ups on both May 26 and May 27, according to Antenna. The company started notifying U.S. users about the password sharing crackdown via email notification just days earlier on May 23. This spike is an overall 102 percent increase in sign-ups over the past 60-days.

Antenna also found an increase in account cancellations during the same period last month. However, new sign-ups outpaced those canceling. "The ratio of Sign-ups to Cancels since May 23rd is up +25.6% compared to the previous 60-day period," the report found.

It's obviously still early, but so far Netflix's decision to curb password sharing seems to have been a successful one. And you can guarantee that other streaming services are watching how it goes, ready to roll out similar policies of their own.