Netflix might have been slow to join the ranks of ad-supported streaming services, but it has quickly become a dominant player in that market.
The company on Tuesday announced its ad-supported tier has reached 70 million monthly active users in just two years. Over 50% of new Netflix sign-ups are for the advertising-supported plan, the company said.
Netflix launched its ad-supported tier in November of 2022 to counter slowing subscriber numbers. It not only worked then; it’s continued to work, and Netfllix says it continues “to see positive momentum and growth across all areas of the business.”
Advertisers are following those crowds. Netflix said both of the two live Christmas Day NFL games it will air in December have sold out of all available in-game inventory. And upcoming anticipated series, like Squid Game 2, have lured new partners as well.
That could set the company up for even more growth in 2025, when it will begin airing WWE’s flagship Raw program on Mondays. Raw is consistently one of the top-rated programs on cable today and many of those advertisers could follow the brand to Netflix.
Netflix self-reports viewership, but said it has partnered with Nielsen for live ratings of the Christmas Day games. It’s unclear if the two companies will work together on upcoming live programming.
To put the 70-million figure into perspective, Apple TV Plus has a total membership estimated at just 25 million. Peacock stands at 34 million and Hulu has 51.1 million members.
Netflix, all totaled, has over 282.7 million subscribers around the world. The company says it plans to stop reporting subscription numbers starting next year, saying time spent with the service is its “best proxy for customer satisfaction.”