40% of global HBO Max subscribers are signed up to the ad-supported tier. This is according to Warner Bros. Discovery and its latest quarterly earnings, confirming a major increase in the number of subscribers now watching with ads.
What You Need to Know
- HBO Max’s ad‑supported tier has grown significantly, now making up 40% of its global subscriber base.
- According to WBD, ad-supported subscribers accounted for more than half of all new retail sign‑ups in Q2 2026.
- HBO Max helped push WBD’s Streaming segment past $3 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time.
With the cost of streaming continually increasing, ‘with ads’ plans can be a good way to save. This is also true of HBO Max considering the ad-supported plan costs $10.99/mo and the cheapest ad-free plan costs $18.49/mo.
With such a difference in price, it is not surprising that more consumers are opting to sit through ads breaks to save on the cost of streaming. In fact, 40% of the entire HBO Max subscriber base is now watching with ads.
Warner Bros. Discovery confirmed the increase in ad-supported subscribers as part of its Q2 2026 earnings release today. WBD said the ad-supported tier accounted for over half of all retail subscriber additions during the more recent quarter.
According to Warner Bros. Discovery, the 40% ad-supported subscribers marks an 11% year-over-year increase.
Still Room for HBO Max to Grow Monetization
While ads naturally offer another way to monetize the service, Warner Bros. Discovery says it is still in the early stages of monetizing its ad-supported subscribers.
“As our ad-supported subscriber base continues to increase and engagement continues to grow, we are still in the very early stages of monetization growth. We see meaningful opportunity to enhance the value of our platform for advertising partners and to drive better monetization through data and format innovation, and improving yield as we continue to increase still lower international fill rates while maintaining our premium positioning. This, in turn, will further enhance subscriber lifetime value,” WBD said.
In terms of revenue, Warner Bros. Discovery reported more than $3 billion in Streaming segment revenue during the second quarter of 2026, partly thanks to the continued global expansion of HBO Max.
According to the company, this marked the first time the Streaming segment has generated over $3 billion in quarterly revenue.
Overall, the company reported $8.7 billion in total revenue for the quarter, an 11% decline on the previous year’s quarter.
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