Why are people leaving Netflix?

Netflix may have a lot of competition these days, but it’s still the home of major streaming juggernauts. Do you want to get swept away in a romantic show like Bridgerton? What about a deep dive into the dramatic Baby Reindeer story (on and off screen)? Considering how many varied series are on the service, it might be surprising to hear that some people don’t want to subscribe anymore.

Maybe we feel totally overwhelmed by all the streaming services, confused by some of the more random ones, or we wonder why we somehow pay for them all. Either way, we all have at least one favorite Netflix show. So why people wouldn’t want to subscribe to Netflix anymore? Let’s dive into why some people made that decision.

What is the reason why people are canceling Netflix?

According to The Direct, some people are leaving Netflix because of Reed Hastings’ $7 million Kamala Harris campaign donation. The publication noted that some people posted on X that they don’t want to keep paying for the streaming service because of Harris being a “communist.” Hastings, who co-founded Netflix along with Marc Randolph, decided to show his support for Harris in July 2024. We’re not sure exactly how many people are done with Netflix, but it sounds like they’re Republicans. And, of course, it’s also possible that they could sign up again once the election is over. We also have no way of knowing if people are saying that they’re canceling Netflix while not actually doing it.

We can take a wild guess that Netflix isn’t happy about this. Besides the obvious problem here — that a lot of people don’t understand what communism is (and this is an old and honestly annoying insult at this point) — there’s also the fact that people have been getting rid of Netflix for a long time. In 2023, Yahoo! Finance reported on a Vorhaus Advisors survey that out of 2,000 Americans who are 18 and older, Netflix was their top pick when choosing which streamer to say goodbye to. And #CancelNetflix became popular on X last year when, as Business Insider reported, Netflix said that people would have to pay $8 if they wanted to use the same account/password.

But while subscriptions went down in 2022, Netflix shared that their 2023 numbers were much better, and 13 million people signed up in Q4 of that year, according to Time Magazine. So the company might not be all that upset about being down a few Republican subscribers. The fact that we can now pay less for Stranger Things and Love Is Blind while watching some ads is actually a reason why Netflix is doing so well. The President of Advertising at Netflix, Amy Reinhard, explained that 40 million people are on the ad-supported Netflix plan.

So even if some people don’t want to support Netflix anymore, the company seems to have enough pop culture fans who would never leave (and they definitely have enough subscribers who agree with Hastings’ candidate of choice). We also have to ask, who wouldn’t want to stick around to see the series finale of Stranger Things?!