As someone who hated commercials on TV, nothing sounded better than my Netflix disc-by-mail subscription in 2005. Not only did the content contain no advertisements (as it was on DVD); There was no advertising text anywhere, or even any artwork on the paper sleeve. This was pure cinema.
Those days are gone. There are no DVDs, and Netflix’s advertising business accounts for a rapidly increasing share of its revenue. If Netflix’s own claims are to be believed, its advertising tiers are viewed by 250 million viewers per month. According to my math, that’s about 3% of humanity, across all 12 mostly affluent countries where Netflix serves ads, soon to be expanded to 27.
Netflix also claimed around this time last year that ad-supported Netflix was reaching 94 million people – more than double the claimed audience. And the numbers for 2025 were more than double the number of claimed viewers compared to May 2024. This would mean that viewership with ads is absolutely increasing year on year.
To put at least a little water on Netflix’s claims, Deadline wrote earlier this year that ad-supported Netflix tiers are up only 14% year-over-year, according to research firm Digital Eye. This is a huge discrepancy. To account for at least some of that difference, note that Netflix is basing its reports — which are geared toward potential advertisers — on viewership, not subscriber numbers.
That Digital Eye report also notes that only 40% of active Netflix subscriptions are ad-supported, which is also important to keep in mind. Netflix is not yet earning as much from advertisers as it does from subscriber fees. According to a story last year in the Wall Street Journal, Netflix was expected to make $2.15 billion from advertising revenue last year, while total revenue in 2025 was about $45 billion — less than 5%.
So when you watch Netflix with commercials, remember that for every hour you’re looking at that screen, you’re seeing five minutes of advertising – up to about 8% of your viewing time. That’s the amount of your life you’re giving up for something that Netflix only gets 5% of its revenue from.
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