X

Netflix streamed to almost half a billion devices last month

Netflix's 117 million subscriber base streamed to 450 million individual devices in the last month, mostly TVs, the company's product chief said.

Joan E. Solsman Former Senior Reporter
Joan E. Solsman was CNET's senior media reporter, covering the intersection of entertainment and technology. She's reported from locations spanning from Disneyland to Serbian refugee camps, and she previously wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. She bikes to get almost everywhere and has been doored only once.
Expertise Streaming video, film, television and music; virtual, augmented and mixed reality; deep fakes and synthetic media; content moderation and misinformation online Credentials
  • Three Folio Eddie award wins: 2018 science & technology writing (Cartoon bunnies are hacking your brain), 2021 analysis (Deepfakes' election threat isn't what you'd think) and 2022 culture article (Apple's CODA Takes You Into an Inner World of Sign)
Joan E. Solsman

Hey Netflix subscribers, if you're streaming on more than three different devices, congratulations: You're above average. 

Netflix streamed to 450 million discrete devices just in the last month, the company's chief product officer, Greg Peters, said Tuesday. With 117 million members as of the end of last year, the number of streaming devices for the average member works out to 3.9.

Most of those devices were TVs , but the breakdown depends on the region a members lives in, Peters said at the company's headquarters in West Hollywood, California. Netflix is hosting journalists from more than 30 countries Tuesday and Wednesday for what it calls Labs Day, a junket that dives into various facets of its service. 

Netflix went global, except for China, two years ago. Since then, both its original products and its service itself have broadened to suit the varying demands of different markets. The company is producing shows in 20 different countries, and it has rolled out service tweaks like downloading to address needs of countries where mobile connectivity is challenging. 

Peters said Netflix originals in specific languages are crossing borders to reach international viewers. For the company's German original thriller series "Dark," 90 percent of viewing has been outside Germany, he said.