The subscriber addition far exceeds industry guidance; analysts forecasted an increase of 1.7 million subs. Netflix ended the first quarter with 232.5 million users. Netflix's quarterly earnings results arrive a few hours after news broke out that the streamer dropped its basic plan in the US and the UK.

Netflix's significant subscriber gain this quarter reflects the impact of its paid sharing rules.

Netflix wrote in its letter to shareholders, "In May, we successfully launched paid sharing in 100+ countries, representing more than 80 per cent of our revenue base."

The company added that it's rolling out paid sharing to "almost all the remaining countries," including Croatia, Kenya, Indonesia and India. Netflix reported $8.2 billion in revenue and a net income of $1.5 billion.