Ad Blocking Growth Is Slowing Down, but Not Going Away

Fewer internet users than expected are blocking ads across the US and Western Europe. For the second year in a row, we’ve downgraded our estimates of the ad blocking population in France, Germany, the UK and US, as well as our forecast for future growth.

In the US, roughly one in four internet users will block ads this year on at least one of their internet-connected devices. Penetration will be stable, increasing only to 27.0% of internet users at the end of our forecast period. Germany currently has the highest concentration of ad blocking users of the four countries, with 32.8% of internet users using some form of ad blocking this year.

In July 2018, we predicted 75.4 million US internet users would block ads this year; we now expect this year’s US ad blocking population to reach 73.2 million. That still represents an increase of more than 3 million new ad blocking users this year, and the motivations behind having an ad blocker enabled are still there: Many digital ads are disruptive to content experiences…[ Read More ]