All (price) wars have victims, and Netflix’s battle against shared accounts has already resulted in many losses. According to data from consulting firm Kantar, the platform’s policy of preventing users from sharing credentials resulted in the loss of more than 1 million users in the first quarter of 2023.

According to the same source, the measures taken, such as the introduction of a monthly fee (€5.99) for households that share a subscription, together with technical efforts to detect such joint subscriptions, are linked to these numbers. Kantar reports that two-thirds of those 1 million users used someone else’s password to access Netflix.

The decline is not insignificant, as the number of cancellations from the Netflix service tripled in the previous quarter. The advisory also states that while these dropouts did not have paid subscriptions, their departure would be a severe blow to the streaming platform as it would reduce the popularity of their products through recommendations among viewers.

In addition, 10% of the remaining Netflix users are considering canceling their subscription in the second quarter of this year, which is significantly higher than in previous periods, according to the report.

Netflix introduced anti-sharing measures in several Latin American countries and later expanded them to Spain, Portugal, Canada and New Zealand. The platform acknowledges that the announcement of the new prices was accompanied by a response to cancellation in all countries. Although Netflix does not provide country-by-country data, it does acknowledge that more than 100 million people around the world use an account they don’t sign up for.

However, Netflix remains optimistic: while it did not live up to its growth expectations during the first quarter of 2023, the platform claims that its fight against shared accounts and its new subscription plan with ads will lead to an increase in subscriptions during the second quarter of this year.