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The company story

Netflix, Inc.

XNAS: NFLX · USD · split-adjusted

The mail-order DVD company that ate television.

Every era of Netflix looks like a different company: envelopes, then licensing, then originals, then the global default. The stock’s job has been deciding which version the market is paying for.

$0.1076first monthly close, May 2002 $70.30latest, Sep 29, 2026 +65208.48%since May 2002 $1,000 → $653,084.76first close to now
  1. 1Mail-orderMay 2002 – Dec 2010+2231.78%
  2. 2The stream pivotJan 2011 – Dec 2013+71.98%
  3. 3Global originalsJan 2014 – Dec 2020+824.71%
  4. 4The maturity shockJan 2021 – Jun 2023−17.26%
  5. 5The password eraJul 2023 – Sep 2026+60.15%

DVDs by post, patiently profitable

A $15 IPO into a category everyone assumed Blockbuster owned. Netflix survives the dot-com bust, the Blockbuster late-fee war, and a Walmart exit — and quietly puts streaming inside the red envelope in 2007.

  1. IPO at $15 a shareMarket

    A $300M valuation for an unprofitable DVD-by-mail service. Adjusted for two later splits, roughly 21 cents a share.

    Closed $0.1076 that month

  2. Streaming launches inside the subscriptionProduct

    Watch Now offers about a thousand titles, free with the envelope plan. The second product is invented while the first is still growing.

    Closed $0.3259 that month

Qwikster, then the comeback of the decade

A price change plus a plan to split the company in two costs 75% of the stock in four months. Reed Hastings walks it back; originals arrive and the recovery makes it the decade’s best large-cap.

  1. The Qwikster announcementCrisis

    Separate services, separate bills, a 60% price rise. The stock falls ~75% by October; the plan is abandoned weeks after launch. The bottom is a masterclass in earning back trust.

    Closed $3.80 that month

  2. House of Cards — the whole season at onceProduct

    Netflix drops a $100M series, all episodes at once, and binging becomes the verb. Every incumbent’s schedule becomes legacy overnight.

    Closed $2.69 that month

Television, exported everywhere

190 countries at once, then a content budget that reaches television scale. The 2020 lockdown pulls a decade of subscriber growth into two quarters.

  1. Live in 130 new countriesProduct

    One CES keynote flips Netflix from US service to global default. International subscribers soon outnumber domestic ones.

    Closed $9.18 that month

  2. The lockdown pull-forwardMarket

    26 million net adds in two quarters — the best six months in streaming history and the setup for the hardest comparisons that follow.

    Closed $41.99 that month

The first subscriber loss in history

A saturated home market posts shrinking subs; the stock loses 35% in a day, then keeps falling. The response — ads, paid sharing, cost discipline — is the pivot that makes the next era possible.

  1. The first subscriber lossCrisis

    200,000 subscribers shrink, guidance points lower, and the stock falls 35% in a day — then keeps going, losing roughly 75% from the 2021 peak.

    Closed $19.04 that month

  2. The ads tier launchesProduct

    The anti-ads company launches advertising. It becomes the fastest-growing part of the business within two years.

    Closed $30.55 that month

  3. Paid sharing goes globalProduct

    The crackdown everyone predicted would backfire adds millions of members per quarter instead. Churn spikes, then drops below pre-crackdown levels.

    Closed $39.52 that month

Sharing becomes churn becomes revenue

Paid sharing converts borrowers into payers, the ad tier scales, live events arrive — then a 10-for-1 split and a hard reminder that even the default streamer is still a stock.

  1. Live at scale: Tyson vs. PaulMarket

    60 million households watch a boxing match on a service that used to mail DVDs. The ad business and the live thesis converge.

    Closed $89.13 that month

  2. The 10-for-1 splitMarket

    Shares cross $1,000 and split ten ways for accessibility — the second split in a decade of dominance.

    Closed $107.58 that month

  3. The drawdown yearCrisis

    After the split-era highs, the stock gives back a large part of its run as streaming growth normalises — a reminder that the best stories still have ugly chapters.

    Closed $70.30 that month

The whole arc

+65208.48% in 24 years

One chart, May 31, 2002 – Sep 29, 2026. Open it, drag a range, add your own markers — or take this card with you.