Netflix said its ad-supported tier now reaches more than 250 million global monthly active viewers, a figure the company highlighted during its fourth Upfront presentation on May 13. Netflix also said more than 80% of its ads members are actively watching every week.

The company did not present the 250 million figure as a subscriber count. Netflix described the metric as “global monthly active viewers,” making it a reach and engagement measure rather than a direct readout of paid accounts, households or recurring revenue. TheWrap reported that Netflix defines a monthly active viewer as members who watched at least one minute of ad-supported content on Netflix in a month, multiplied by the estimated average number of people in a household, based on first-party research.

Netflix also said it will expand its ads plan to 15 additional countries starting in 2027, including Austria, Belgium, Colombia, Denmark, Indonesia, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and Thailand. The company also said new ad inventory across podcasts and vertical video will be available globally in 2027.

The ad-supported tier is becoming more important to Netflix’s acquisition and monetization strategy. In its Q1 2026 shareholder letter, Netflix said Q1 revenue growth was driven primarily by membership growth, higher pricing and increased ad revenue. The company also said its full-year 2026 guidance remains $50.7 billion to $51.7 billion in revenue, driven by membership growth, pricing and a projected rough doubling of ads revenue.

Advertising is growing, but it remains a relatively small share of Netflix’s overall business. Netflix does not report subscription revenue and advertising revenue as separate line items, but its 2025 Form 10-K says the company primarily derives revenue from monthly membership fees. The filing also says revenue from advertisements, consumer products, live experiences and other non-membership sources was not a material component of revenue in 2025, 2024 or 2023.

Netflix separately disclosed that 2025 ad revenue grew more than 2.5x to over $1.5 billion. Compared with total 2025 revenue of $45.18 billion, that means advertising represented at least about 3.3% of total revenue. For 2026, Netflix continues to forecast total revenue of $50.7 billion to $51.7 billion and expects ad revenue to roughly double. If Netflix reaches about $3 billion in ad revenue this year, advertising would represent roughly 6% of projected total revenue.

For subscription executives, the development is not that advertising is replacing recurring revenue at Netflix. It is that Netflix is building advertising into a broader revenue mix while membership fees continue to carry the business.

INSIDER TAKE

Netflix’s ad update is a scale story, but the revenue mix is the more important operator lesson.

The 250 million figure should not be read as subscribers. It is a viewer-reach metric, which makes it useful for advertising, but less useful as a direct measure of paid account growth, recurring revenue or customer lifetime value.

That distinction matters because Netflix’s ad business is growing quickly from a still-small base. Advertising represented at least about 3.3% of total revenue in 2025. Even if Netflix reaches its 2026 target, ads would still represent roughly 6% of projected total revenue.

For subscription operators, the takeaway is discipline. Ad-supported tiers can expand reach, support price-sensitive customers and create incremental monetization, but audience scale is not the same as revenue quality.