Nearly double the previous count, the Netflix ad-supported tier currently has 40 million monthly users.

• The ad-supported tier of Netflix now has 40 million monthly active users worldwide.
• That's nearly double the 23 million the company reported in January.
• The streaming giant first introduced its ad tier in November 2022.

The ad-supported tier of the company has gained 40 million global monthly active users, the company announced on Wednesday.

The streaming giant shared a nearly double figure of 23 million in January.

Netflix has decided to launch its own advertising platform, while continuing to partner with Microsoft for programmatic advertising.

Netflix launched an ad-supported plan in November 2022 as part of a broader initiative to increase revenue, which also involved a password-sharing crackdown.

On Wednesday, the company announced that 40% of all signups in countries where the ad tier is available have chosen the cheaper plan. Netflix currently has 270 million total subscribers.

Netflix stopped providing quarterly subscriber number updates a month ago, and the company's monthly active ad-tier user figures have been released. Netflix stated at the time that it was generating substantial profit and free cash flow and that its membership numbers were not the only factor in the company's growth. The company said that the metric lost significance after it started to offer multiple price points for memberships.

As traditional media companies attempt to establish a presence in the streaming industry, the number of ad-tier users is increasing. Netflix has emerged as the dominant force in this area, with many other companies struggling to turn a profit from their streaming platforms.

Netflix has significantly more subscribers than its key competitors, as evidenced by Comcast's recent first-quarter earnings report, which revealed that Peacock had only 34 million subscribers.

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.