Netflix is laying off around 1,000 employees, about 6 percent of its workforce, the company's co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters announced in an internal memo on Tuesday. The cuts mark Netflix's largest round of layoffs to date, according to reports from The Verge, TechCrunch and Engadget.
The layoffs will mostly affect staff in Netflix's product, technology, human resources and legal teams. They follow a report last week that the streamer was planning to cut 5 percent of its staff; the final figure was higher.
Why Netflix is cutting jobs now
The company says the move is about focus, not crisis. "Our mission — to entertain the world — is ambitious, and delivering on it requires us to be disciplined about where we prioritize our people and resources," Sarandos and Peters wrote in the memo. "We'll continue to invest aggressively in high-impact areas to improve our service and further drive growth and innovation."
Netflix's business remains strong on paper. Revenue reached $45.2 billion in 2025, net income rose to $11 billion, and the platform counted 325 million subscribers. Its ad-supported plan, priced at $7.99 per month, passed 9.4 million subscribers as of May 2025, more than doubling ad revenue to $1.5 billion year over year.
Still, Netflix faces mounting pressure for viewers' attention. YouTube is said to have surpassed Netflix in average daily viewing in 2025, and social apps like TikTok and Instagram are catching up on engagement. Netflix also lost a bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery's streaming and studio assets to Paramount Skydance earlier this year. The company had around 16,000 full-time employees at the end of last year.
- Layoffs: around 1,000 employees, or 6% of the workforce
- Most affected teams: product, technology, human resources, legal
