Shares of Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) climbed by 5% intra-day today, driven by growing enthusiasm for the company's advertising-supported subscription option. Recent statements from the company at CES indicate a surge in the adoption of this ad-supported tier. Netflix's management reported that their ad-tier has now reached 23 million global monthly active users (MAUs), a significant increase from the 15 million reported in the previous update in October 2023.

In light of this development, Citi analysts remain optimistic about the future growth of Netflix's ad-tier subscribers. Their analysis suggests that Netflix is on track to add approximately 16 million ad-tier subscribers annually.

Citi finds the recent uptick in adoption encouraging and believes there's potential for an even faster increase in ad-tier subscribers. The analysts estimate that Netflix will gain around 25 million ad-tier subscribers in 2024. Looking further ahead, their projections indicate that Netflix could reach approximately 82 million ad-tier subscribers by 2028.