Last quarter, Netflix management said its expansion into video podcasts and its showing of the World Baseball Classic helped its “primary internal quality engagement metric” reach a new record in the first quarter. We wrote that Time Spent per DAU could be a good indication of this metric, as it had hit all-time highs across all age cohorts in Q1 2026.
Time spent per user is up 9.6% Y/Y in Q2 2026 but it has shrunk slightly Q/Q. The engagement loss is concentrated in younger users. You can see the sharp divide between those aged 35 and below and those aged those aged 36+. Users in the older age bands continued to grow their time spent, which Netflix management may call out as another record for older viewers.
“The overall story is of really weak user growth in the US, partially due to elevated churn,” said Tom Grant, VP of Research. “This weak US growth should be offset by growth we’re seeing in APAC. User engagement is ok overall; people are continuing to open the app at a good rate but time spent is not really growing, suggesting the content is not as engaging.”
Downloads (new users) are down 16% Y/Y in the US while DAUs are down 8%. APAC downloads were up 3% Y/Y, the first quarter with positive year-over-year growth since Q1 2025. DAUs are up 14% in APAC.
With regards to churn specifically, it increased at a somewhat elevated rate in 2Q26, and is much higher the first two weeks of July. It will be worth checking in on churn and engagement again once the World Cup ends.
