Netflix slashes 1,000 jobs in largest workforce reduction in four years

[Shawn Knight]

In a nutshell: Netflix is the latest streaming giant to dial back its global workforce amidst sluggish growth and customer interest. In an internal memo circulated Wednesday, co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said they would be saying goodbye off roughly 6% of their staff.

The cuts equate to roughly 1,000 jobs, and mostly affect those in product, legal, tech, and human resources divisions. According to The Wall Street Journal, the round of layoffs is the company's largest since 2022.

Netflix's struggles aren't new, nor have they gone unaddressed. The streaming giant has explored multiple strategies as of late to boost engagement, with varying degrees of success.

Earlier this year, Netflix launched a kid-friendly gaming app called Playground. In July, they celebrated 10 years of Stranger Things with VHS-style tribute to the series. The streaming giant is also said to be considering a free, ad-supported tier for those unwilling to pay increasingly more expensive monthly fees.

Credit: App Economy Insights

Other initiatives have seen a quicker payoff. Last month, for example, Netflix partnered with Rockstar to host a highly anticipated extended look at Grand Theft Auto VI. The near half-hour video was a runaway hit, crashing Netflix's servers out of the gate and garnering 31.1 million views in just four days. Other projects, like the recently announced partnership between Netflix and Sega to produce a movie based on the Crazy Taxi franchise, won't see a return until much later.

Naturally, not everyone wants to see Netflix succeed. Over the summer, a report surfaced claiming YouTube was paying some of its most popular creators millions of dollars to keep their content from being hosted on Netflix or other streaming platforms.

Netflix's job cuts come just a week before the company is scheduled to release its next quarterly earnings report. Year to date, shares are down around 22% as performance has cooled significantly since its peak in the summer of 2025. Even with the recent downturn, the streaming specialist is sitting on a market cap of roughly $292 billion.

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Netflix slashes 1,000 jobs in largest workforce reduction in four years

 

[James321]

Maybe increasing the prices, was not a good idea?

GREED, is the root of all EVIL.

They get what they deserve!

Sorry for the workers off course.

 

[NumberNine]

If Netflix doesn't find a way to generate value to its subscribers, it will not survive the Paramount merger in its current form.

No amount of firing or subscription hiking can create a long term solution to the corner they've painted themselves into.

 

[Jim Lahey]

I gave up my netflix subscription a few price hikes ago. I would occasionally jump onto my brother's account when something came up I really wanted to check out, but then they got militant about IP tracking.

Ever since then I let go of them altogether and haven't missed it. They were the first to really figure out the streaming landscape, but the value was an inexpensive alternative to cable, where you might stumble across content libraries that you wouldn't otherwise invest in.

Once they became as expensive as entry-level cable, and then adopted their own programming with all the culture wars baked in, we just walked away. Curious to know if others feel the same.

 

[yRaz]

If Netflix doesn't find a way to generate value to its subscribers, it will not survive the Paramount merger in its current form.

No amount of firing or subscription hiking can create a long term solution to the corner they've painted themselves into.

With the way things are going it looks like Paramount will become the streaming giant kind of like cable companies. It makes me feel like we are going to drop back into the cable TV era and streaming services will be treated just like adding premium channels to your monthly bill. Want Netflix? gotta pay for Paramount+ first.

Streaming has gotten so fractured that everything that made Netflix appealing in the first place is gone. It was cheap, convenient and had everything. Now all of the services are none of those things and to get a service close to cable you are paying MORE than cable. I remember when youtube premium was only $7/m, now it's $25. I literally just have a RasberriPi I bought for $50 running as an adblocker/firewall/DNS server for my home network. Do I think youtube premium worth $7/m? yeah. $25? hell no. And it went up in price extremely fast, like $20 or 2 years

And they're going to find some silly excuse as to why they can't bring the price down.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Laying off HR is delicious irony.

 

[pnntmp]

Less and less interesting content combined with regular price hikes is apparently not the right recipe for retaining customers.

The average Netflix show is something you watch today and don't remember tomorrow, good old movies are rare and disappear quickly ... it's simply not worth it.
I now subscribe for 1 month once or twice per year, not sure when the next time will be.

 

[Honest Abe]

I've never had a subscription to any streaming services. Usenet and torrents exist for a reason.

 

[axiomatic13]

I just can't trust Netflix not to cancel series I was invested in. (Archive81, Shadow and Bone, The Irregulars , come to mind.) I've moved on. Finish your damn stories or no subscription.