If you’d thrown $1,000 at Netflix in 2015, you’d be sitting on about $10,000 today.
Back in 2015, Netflix (NFLX) was still shaking off its DVD-by-mail image and betting big on streaming and original content. Fast-forward a decade, and it’s gone from a scrappy disruptor to an industry heavyweight, with a stock price over $1,000.
While legacy media giants like Disney, Warner Brothers and Paramount have struggled to adapt, Netflix rewrote the rules — and then played the game better than anyone else.
Let’s break down exactly how much $1,000 invested in Netflix in 2015 would be worth today — and why the streaming giant’s story is far from over.
What a $1,000 Netflix investment 10 years ago would be worth today
Let’s take a quick time machine trip back to July 27, 2015 — right after the last stock spit. Netflix stock was trading at about $106.43 a share. If you dropped $1,000 on Netflix back then, you would’ve walked away with 9.4 shares. (Fractional shares weren’t widely available in 2015 but let’s just pretend they were.)
Fast forward to April 25, 2025, and those same 9.4 shares would be worth a jaw-dropping $10,354, with Netflix stock closing at $1,101.53 per share today. That’s a 935 percent return on your initial investment.
In other words, if you’d put your money where your remote is a decade ago, your investment would have crushed the S&P, outpaced competition by a long shot and 10x’d your cash.
That sounds impressive but let’s put that in context. If you’d instead decided to back more traditional media companies, your gains — or rather your losses — would tell a very different story.
- Disney (DIS): A $1,000 investment in 2015 would now be worth just $733 — a 26.7 percent loss.
- Warner Bros. (WBD): $1,000 would have shrunk to $264 — down 73.5 percent.
- Paramount (PARA): That investment would be worth about $223 today — a staggering 77.8 percent loss.
The contrast is stark. Netflix didn’t just outperform other streaming stocks — it left them in the dust.
How Netflix became an entertainment powerhouse
Netflix did one thing legacy players didn’t — it didn’t cling to the past.
Netflix pivoted early into streaming, and by 2015, it was already moving away from licensed content and doubling down on originals. That decision quickly paid off. Building off the success of “House of Cards” and “Orange is the New Black in 2013, “Stranger Things” hit in 2016, followed by massive hits such as “The Crown,” “Ozark” and “Narcos,” locking in binge-happy subscribers who didn’t want to wait a week for new episodes.
The pandemic helped, too. While the world was stuck inside, Netflix became the go-to streaming platform. It added 37 million subscribers in 2020 alone. The company also saw its stock jump from $364 a share in April 2020 to $545 per share by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, competitors were still playing catch-up. Disney+ took nearly five years to turn a profit. Warner Bros. (which owns HBO Max) went through multiple strategy pivots. Paramount struggled to gain streaming share as it navigated CEO shakeups and merger talks.
Unlike traditional media giants, Netflix didn’t have to worry about box office numbers or cable bundles. It didn’t need a TV network or a theater.
As Morningstar analyst Matthew Dolgin put it in an April 20 note: “[Netflix] was the pioneer in its industry, providing it a big head start in accumulating subscribers and moving past the huge initial cash burn that we see as necessary to build a successful streaming service.”
Is Netflix a $1 trillion stock?
Only seven U.S. companies have a market cap of $1 trillion or more. Netflix isn’t there yet, but with a current $468.8 million market cap and growing industry dominance, it’s within striking distance.
Executives aren’t hiding their ambitions either. During the company’s latest earnings call, co-CEO Gregory Peters said, “We do have big long-term aspirations and those aspirations are really grounded in the potential for growth that we see in the business.”
Here’s what could get Netflix into the trillion-dollar call.
Tariff-proof global reach
Netflix’s investment in international content has helped it unlock massive growth beyond the U.S. It’s spent billions on local-language productions across Asia, Latin America and Europe, offering country-specific original content in 50 countries.
With 300 million paying subscribers across the globe, Netflix now has the largest streaming subscriber base in the world by a wide margin. And many regions — including Europe, the Middle East and Africa — still have significant room to grow.
Growing ad revenue
Netflix launched its ad-supported tier in 2022, and although advertising currently makes up a small slice of its overall revenue, the potential is enormous. During a call with shareholders in April, executives said they plan to double advertising revenue in 2025 alone.
As subscriber growth in the U.S. tapers off, advertising gives Netflix a new edge. After all, the foundation is already there: Netflix has a massive global subscriber base and sticky engagement — two things advertisers are desperate for as the death knell of cable tolls.
“Advertising-supported subscriptions will open Netflix to a new base of subscribers and a major new source of revenue,” wrote Dolgin.
As part of its push to scale its advertising business, Netflix launched its own ad tech platform on April 1, moving away from third-party partners like Microsoft.
Owning its own ad tech could give Netflix more control over targeting, measurement and reporting — key tools for attracting major ad dollars. The U.S. launch also strategically aligns with the spring upfronts, a time when advertisers commit big budgets for the year ahead.
It’s built to survive a recession
Netflix is widely considered a recession-resilient company, if not fully recession-proof. For under $20 a month, it provides hundreds of hours of entertainment, offering a lot of value to budget-conscious consumers during hard times. Investors love that kind of consistency and predictability.
Profits are scaling quickly
Netflix isn’t just growing — it’s becoming significantly more profitable.
In Q1 2025, the company beat expectations and posted a 47 percent jump in operating income over the previous quarter. The business is becoming more efficient, more predictable and more profitable — which Wall Street rewards.
Morningstar projects operating margins will rise from 27 percent in 2024 to nearly 35 percent by 2030. Free cash flow is expected to more than double from $7 billion in 2024 to $18 billion by decade’s end. Morningstar is also forecasting 10 percent average annual revenue growth over the next five years.
That all aligns nicely with the goals laid out in the company’s latest shareholder letter: Sustain healthy revenue growth, expand operating margin and deliver growing free cash flow.
Is Netflix going to split its stock?
Netflix hasn’t split its stock in a decade, but given the company’s consistent growth, it wouldn’t be surprising if it happened soon.
The company has only split its stock twice since going public in 2002. The first time was a 2-for-1 split on February 2004. The second and most recent was a 7-for-1 split in July 2015 when the stock had rocketed up to around $700.
Today, the stock is at or hovering near all-time highs of over $1,000 a share.
While Netflix hasn’t said anything publicly, history suggests it could be due for a split. A stock split doesn’t change the fundamentals, though — it’s like breaking a $20 bill into two $10s — but it does make shares look cheaper, which tends to attract more retail investors. That could give Netflix another shot of momentum.
Bottom line
A $1,000 investment in Netflix in 2015 would be worth more than $10,000 today. That’s what betting on a category-defining disruptor looks like. While Disney and other peers struggled to pivot, Netflix leaned into its strengths and built a global empire.
As Morningstar put it: “[Netflix] has no legacy assets that are losing value as society transitions to new ways of consuming video entertainment at home.”
And based on its momentum, Netflix is only getting started.
Editorial Disclaimer: All investors are advised to conduct their own independent research into investment strategies before making an investment decision. In addition, investors are advised that past investment product performance is no guarantee of future price appreciation.
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