19 April 2022: Netflix reports its first subscriber loss in a decade
After the close on April 19, 2022 Netflix said it had lost 200,000 subscribers in the quarter, its first decline in more than ten years, and warned of more to come. The next day the stock fell about 35%, wiping out tens of billions in value. Password sharing, rising competition and the end of lockdowns had caught up with it. Netflix responded with an ad tier and a crackdown on shared accounts.
The lesson: Growth stocks are priced for growth; the first sign it is slowing can hurt far more than the number itself.
What it meant for investors
$1,000 in Netflix at the start of 2020 → $3,333 today, vs $2,092 in the S&P 500.
We start the clock at the start of 2020, the latest year on the wheel. That is 3.3 times the money, and $1,241 more than a plain index fund made over the same years.
What Netflix teaches: Huge winners rarely feel safe while you hold them; Netflix suffered several drawdowns of over 50 percent, and each one tested whether investors believed the strategy.
| Bought in | Price then | Worth today | S&P 500 would be |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | $49.00 | $22,449 | $3,301 |
| 2018 | $200 | $5,500 | $2,519 |
| 2020 | $330 | $3,333 | $2,092 |
green = beat the S&P 500 · red = lost money
What if you bought Netflix? Every starting year and the full story →
More Netflix history
Could you have called it at the time? The wheel picks the year, you pick the position, ten seconds a pick.
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