New Delhi, Oct 20 (IANS): After facing Covid-induced production delays last year, Netflix is seeing positive results as the world reopens. According to the streaming giant, it added 4.4 million paid users in the third quarter (Q3) to end it with 214 million paid memberships.

The company grew revenue 16 per cent (year-over-year) to $7.5 billion in the July-September period, while operating income rose 33 per cent to the prior year quarter to $1.8 billion.

"We're very excited to finish the year with what we expect to be our strongest Q4 content offering yet, which shows up as bigger content expense and lower operating margins sequentially," Netflix said in a statement late on Tuesday.

Released on September 17, 'Squid Game', a unique Korean story that first captured the zeitgeist in Korea and then globally has become its biggest TV show ever.

"A mind-boggling 142 million member households globally have chosen to watch the title in its first four weeks. The breadth of Squid Game's popularity is truly amazing," the company said.

Netflix said that for the festive quarter (October-December period), it forecast paid net adds of 8.5 million.

"For the full year 2021, we forecast an operating margin of 20 per cent or slightly better. This means that Q421 operating margin will be approximately 6.5 per cent compared with 14 per cent in Q420," it added.

On gaming, Netflix said it has started testing games offering in select countries.

"It remains very early days for this initiative and, like other content categories we've expanded into, we plan to try different types of games, learn from our members and improve our game library," the streaming giant noted.

Games on Netflix will be included in members' subscriptions and will not have

advertisements or in-app purchases.

Later in the year, Netflix will shift to reporting on hours viewed for its titles rather than the number of accounts that choose to watch them.