At the end of 2021, Netflix was the world’s biggest streaming service with a whopping 222 million subscribers across the globe. However, in the first quarter of this year, it has lost 200,000 in the US alone, making it the first time a drop like this happened on the site in 10 years. The company has blamed things from the war in Ukraine to password sharing for this loss, yet the real problem could be more to do with Netflix itself.

On Tuesday (19/4/22), the company announced their dramatic loss of subscribers as the shares plummeted over 35%. Their excuses being posted on social media ranged from war to pandemic to password sharing; however, many critics believe it is simply that they are not creating or releasing content that viewers want to watch. Alongside the decrease of views on the site, there is a heavy increase on other streaming services – for example, Apple TV and Disney+. Even though Apple TV has only been popular for a few years, shows such as Ted Lasso and Coda have already swept up awards. This is something that Netflix failed to do until 2013 with House of Cards.

This isn’t to say that no one is watching Netflix anymore. One of the latest hits, Bridgerton season 2, racked up over 627 million views since its release last month. But in countries such as the US and Canada, services like HBO Max which hold crafted TV shows and blockbuster movies (alongside taking Friends from Netflix US) may have more appeal. The Guardian magazine compared Netflix to how cable TV used to be, writing that Netflix viewers are “pretty much where many of them were with cable before they cut the cord and downloaded the app”.

Personally, Netflix still holds some of my favourite titles, and I spend more hours than I would care to admit on the site. But with the talk of rising prices, I suspect this will not be the end of Netflix’s losses.