British black comedy Baby Reindeer and the new series of Bridgerton helped drive record revenues of $9.6bn (£7.4bn) at Netflix, the streaming giant disclosed last night.
Profits for the three months ending in June climbed by 44pc to $2.1bn compared to the previous year, while the US technology business added more than 8m new subscribers, beating Wall Street expectations with a total of 277.6m paying viewers.
Executives at Netflix hailed the surprise success of Baby Reindeer, which has racked up more than 88m views since it was released in April.
Other key releases for Netflix included the latest series of Bridgerton and superhero drama Supacell, which is set in London.
The subscription boost comes after Netflix cracked down on so-called “password sharing”, blocking subscribers from lending their accounts to friends and family.
Netflix, which has been battling fierce competition from streaming rivals including Disney+, has added a cheaper advertising package for users to boost subscriber numbers. It said subscribers to its advertising tier grew by 34pc.
The business upgraded its revenue forecasts for the rest of the year, although its shares dipped by 2pc as Netflix predicted a slowdown in the number of new paying customers it would add in the coming months.
The bumper results come after the streaming giant scored an unlikely hit with the release of Baby Reindeer on April 11.
The series, based on the one-man live show by actor Richard Gadd, follows a bartender and struggling stand-up comedian who is relentlessly stalked by his biggest fan.
Despite its commercial success, Baby Reindeer has proved controversial, with a woman who allegedly inspired the antagonist of the show suing Netflix for $170m last month.
Fiona Harvey identified herself as behind the character of Martha, who pursues Mr Gadd’s character, Donny Dunn, and harasses him with thousands of emails and hundreds of voice messages. The streaming series is claimed to have been based on real events.
In a defamation lawsuit filed in California, Ms Harvey alleged Netflix told “brutal lies”, including that she was a “twice convicted stalker who was sentenced to five years in prison”.
“Defendants told these lies, and never stopped, because it was a better story than the truth, and better stories made money,” the legal claim states.
“As a result of defendants’ lies, malfeasance and utterly reckless misconduct, Harvey’s life had been ruined.”
Netflix has said it plans to “defend this matter vigorously”.
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