Netflix said its decade-long run of subscriber growth ended in the first quarter and admitted it was becoming “harder to grow membership” in many markets, sending its shares tumbling 27 per cent in pre-market trading on Wednesday.

The video streaming pioneer shocked investors by forecasting that its number of subscribers would fall by another 2mn in the current quarter, to about 219.6mn, after declining about 200,000 in the first quarter. Investors had expected an increase of 2.6mn subscribers.

Netflix blamed the dramatic slowdown in part on saturation in its biggest markets. But it also acknowledged the impact of rising competition from streaming services launched by traditional media groups such as Disney, Warner Bros Discovery and Paramount. Together, these factors had created “revenue growth headwinds”, the company said.