Netflix's US Selection Has Shrunk by More Than 30% in Less Than 2.5 Years

A story as old as time: Friday night comes around, you sit down at your computer to watch some quality Netflix entertainment, but the movie in your queue has vanished. Sure, Netflix swaps out titles, but over the past two and a half years, its selection has also quietly shrunk by a third.

In January 2014, Netflix offered US-based users a selection of 6,494 movies and 1,609 TV shows, for a total of 8,103 titles. As of March 23, 2016, the service offers just 4,335 movies and 1,197 TV shows—or 5,532 titles in total. That’s 2,571 fewer titles. In other words, Netflix’s catalog has shrunk 31.7% in less than two and a half years, all according to data compiled by Allflicks.

So where did these titles go? The data alone cannot account for the exact reason behind the disappearance, but a good guess would be competition from other streaming services such as Hulu and Amazon Prime. As the three titans bid for titles, the prices get higher, which also accounts for why Netflix has been investing more and more into its own original series and movies. Although there are fewer titles to choose from, some might argue that Netflix’s original content is providing higher quality programming than past offerings. It all depends on your glass half empty / half full outlook.

Netflix’s US Selection Has Shrunk by More Than 30% in Less Than 2.5 Years