Netflix is a wildly popular on-demand video streaming service – it has 86 million users worldwide and is available in every country bar three (and one territory – North Korea, Syria, mainland China and Crimea since you asked.) Yet, somehow the app has never hit number one in the top grossing iTunes charts on the App Store.
Despite its popularity, this might be because traditionally the route to sign-up has been via its website than through a iTunes subscription (which would mean Apple take a cut.) In fact, Netflix only allowed users to signup via the app a year ago.
However, the company’s decision to add offline playback this week – meaning users could download content while on Wi-Fi to watch when they don’t have access to a connection and don’t wish to use data – has paid off. Netflix has just hit the number one spot in the US.
It’s long been recognized that the feature has held the platform back. Competitors like Amazon Prime Video allow offline playback, and it was always users’ number one feature request. It seems that those holding back from signing up to the service have now done so, and they’ve done it direct from the app.
According to App Store analytics firm SensorTower, Netflix’s weekly net revenue has grown from $50,000 in fall 2015 to $2.9m this week.
Read more about Netflix and offline playback: