Netflix posted record profit of $2.9 billion in Q1, a 24 percent increase year-over-year that exceeded its forecast of $2.44 billion. Revenue was up nearly 13 percent to $10.54 billion for the three month period. The streamer attributed the strong performance to “slightly higher subscription and ad revenue and the timing of expenses.” The company is looking ahead to a strong 2025 and robust growth in upcoming years, with an internal goal of doubling annual revenue to $80 billion by 2030 and global ad sales aiming to hit $9 billion. Full-year revenue is forecast to land between $43.5 billion and $44.5 billion.

Numbers for the first three months of 2025 were strong, with the streamer touting “a solid slate” with the four-episode series “Adolescence” and original films “Back in Action” (Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz), the French thriller “Ad Vitam” and Spanish-language “Counterattack” all making it onto Netflix’s “all-time most popular lists.”

“No entertainment company has ever programmed for so many tastes, cultures and languages,” Netflix said in its Q1 shareholder letter.

The streamer “said it has been largely unscathed by recent concerns about the health of the economy in light of the Trump administration’s trade policies,” The Wall Street Journal reported in its earnings story, noting “executives said they have not seen signs of advertising softness and that subscriber engagement remained strong.”

Netflix anticipates a market cap of $1 trillion by 2030, according to long-range internal financial targets reported somewhat controversially by The Wall Street Journal in an article that preceded its Thursday earnings report.

Company co-CEO Ted Sarandos hurried to assure analysts the internal goals were “not the same as a forecast,” according to Variety, which notes that Netflix “hopes to hit about 410 million subscribers worldwide by then (up from 301.6 million at the end of last year).”

The Q1 2025 period marks the first time Netflix withheld quarterly subscriber data, which WSJ says is part of a strategy to shift its focus to “revenue and other financial metrics as performance indicators.”

Quartz characterized Netflix’s Q1 performance as hitting “blockbuster levels,” marveling at its “operating margin of 31.7 percent. Catering to its “enormous, ever-splintering” global audience has “helped the company confidently project near-30 percent margins going forward.”

Netflix also announced that Reed Hastings has transitioned from executive chairman to chairman of the board, describing the move “as part of the natural evolution of our leadership structure and succession planning.” “Hastings, 64, passed the baton to co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters in 2023,” writes Deadline.