Netflix will lay off about 1,000 employees, roughly 6% of its global workforce, as growth and subscriber interest slow. Co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters announced the cuts in an internal memo on Wednesday. Product, legal, technology, and human resources teams are hit hardest. The Wall Street Journal reports it is the company’s biggest round of layoffs since 2022.
Netflix has been dealing with these problems for some time and has responded to them. Over the past several months, it has tried a number of approaches to increase engagement. The results have been uneven.
Earlier this year, Netflix launched Playground, a gaming app for children. In July, it marked 10 years of Stranger Things with a tribute styled after VHS tapes. The company is also reported to be considering a free tier supported by ads, aimed at people who don’t want to keep paying higher monthly fees.
Not every experiment has been slow. Last month, Netflix and Rockstar streamed an extended Grand Theft Auto VI trailer of nearly 30 minutes, which took down Netflix’s servers at launch and racked up 31.1 million views in four days. The payoff on other projects is further out, like the freshly announced Crazy Taxi movie with Sega.
Netflix has competitors who benefit from its difficulties. In the summer, a report said YouTube was paying some of its most popular creators millions of dollars so that their content would not appear on Netflix or other streaming platforms.
The layoffs come one week before Netflix reports quarterly earnings. Its shares have fallen about 22% this year, having slid since peaking in the summer of 2025. Even so, the company’s market value still stands at roughly $292 billion.
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