Netflix's Ad Reach Explodes Past 190M After Ditching Old Metric

• Netflix's ad-supported tier reached over 190 million monthly active viewers (MAVs) in October, according to a new company metric.
• The company is replacing its previous 'monthly active users' (MAUs) metric to better account for multiple viewers per household, a move designed to appeal to advertisers.
• This change comes as Netflix doubles down on its advertising ambitions, with ad revenue projected to more than double in 2025.
• The new MAV metric reveals an audience more than double the size of the 94 million MAUs reported in May, signaling a significant shift in how Netflix presents its value.

Netflix Overhauls Ad Metrics, Revealing Massive Audience

Netflix has officially changed the way it counts eyeballs, and the new numbers are staggering. The streaming giant announced it is abandoning its previous metric of 'monthly active users' (MAUs) in favor of a new 'monthly active viewers' (MAVs) system. The result? Netflix's ad-supported tier reached a colossal 190 million monthly active viewers in October, more than doubling the 94 million MAUs it reported just last May.

From Users to Viewers: A Critical Shift

For years, Netflix measured its ad audience by counting active account profiles. However, the company now admits this method was incomplete, as it failed to capture the reality of co-viewing—multiple people watching on a single account. The new MAV metric addresses this by multiplying the number of ad-tier accounts by the average number of people watching per household.

"After speaking to our partners, we know that what they want most is an accurate, clear, and transparent representation of who their ads are reaching," explained Amy Reinhard, Netflix's President of Advertising. "Our previous measurement... didn't represent all of the engaged people who are in the room watching."

Why This Change Matters Now

The move is a clear signal of Netflix's aggressive push into the advertising space. By reframing its audience size to reflect total viewers, the company presents a much more compelling value proposition to advertisers. This strategic shift follows a record quarter for ad sales and comes amid a broader company trend of moving away from traditional subscriber numbers, having stopped reporting global paid memberships at the end of 2024.

Fueling the Advertising Engine for 2025

Netflix's advertising business is no longer a side experiment; it's a core pillar of its growth strategy. Executives have stated that ad revenue is on a trajectory to more than double in 2025 from what they called a "small base." To facilitate this growth, the company has expanded its programmatic ad offerings through major integrations with Amazon, Google, and The Trade Desk.

Wall Street's Bullish Outlook

The strategic pivot is already earning praise from financial analysts. JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth predicts Netflix's ad revenue will surge from $1.4 billion in 2024 to $2.9 billion in 2025, climbing another 45% to hit $4.2 billion by 2026. This new, more impressive MAV metric provides the foundation for that explosive growth, giving advertisers the large-scale numbers they crave and confirming that Netflix is a formidable force in the digital ad market.