Netflix on Thursday described cooling subscriber growth as fierce competition and despite hits like "Squid Game" and "Money Heist" the pandemic's weight remained heavy.
The streaming service ended the year with 221.8 million subscribers, just below target, after booming during the coronavirus lockdown that kept people at home and on stage.
Things aren't looking any better for the first quarter of 2022, with Netflix's earnings report saying the firm expects to add just 2.5 million subscribers.
The market's punishment was immediate, with shares of the California streaming giant falling nearly 20 percent in after-hours trading.
The 2.5 million subscribers expected in the previous first quarter came in 2010, when Netflix had only 13.9 million subscribers.
"While retention and engagement remain healthy, acquisition growth has yet to accelerate again to pre-Covid levels," Netflix explained.
“We think this could be due to a number of factors including the ongoing COVID overhang and macro-economic hardship in many parts of the world,” it added.
According to the streaming service, the majority of the 8.3 million subscriptions it added at the end of last year came from outside North America.
Netflix argued that it was holding its own against fierce streaming competition from the likes of HBO Max and Disney+, adding that "this may affect our modest growth."