Breaking it down: Netflix had already pushed expectations as low as it could, projecting that it would lose 2 million subscribers last quarter after shedding 200,000 in the first three months of the year. That created room for a positive surprise.

"We're talking about losing 1 million instead of losing 2 million," Chairman Reed Hastings said on a call with analysts. "So our excitement is tempered by the less bad results."

Netflix's most substantial subscriber loss came from its biggest market, the United States and Canada, where the streamer said it lost 1.3 million users in the second quarter.

*

That was offset by increased subscriptions elsewhere, a sign the company's investment in foreign language programming is paying off. The release of the fourth season of the wildly popular show "Stranger Things" also provided a boost.

Looking ahead: Netflix still has work to do to convince investors that it's on the right track. Its stock is down almost 67% year-to-date. Other tech firms, like Google parent Alphabet and Facebook's Meta are off 21% and 48%, respectively. The S&P 500 is 17% lower.

Breaking it down: Netflix had already pushed expectations as low as it could, projecting that it would lose 2 million subscribers last quarter after shedding 200,000 in the first three months of the year. That created room for a positive surprise.

"We're talking about losing 1 million instead of losing 2 million," Chairman Reed Hastings said on a call with analysts. "So our excitement is tempered by the less bad results."

Netflix's most substantial subscriber loss came from its biggest market, the United States and Canada, where the streamer said it lost 1.3 million users in the second quarter.

*

That was offset by increased subscriptions elsewhere, a sign the company's investment in foreign language programming is paying off. The release of the fourth season of the wildly popular show "Stranger Things" also provided a boost.

Looking ahead: Netflix still has work to do to convince investors that it's on the right track. Its stock is down almost 67% year-to-date. Other tech firms, like Google parent Alphabet and Facebook's Meta are off 21% and 48%, respectively. The S&P 500 is 17% lower.