Opera introduces native ad-blocking feature to its browser, claims it is about 45% faster than Chrome with AdBlock Plus extension
Introducing native ad-blocking feature for faster browsing — If there were no bloated ads, some top websites would load up to 90% faster.
Context & Ripple Effects
Opera is taking ad-blocking out of the extension store and into the browser itself, benchmarking its native blocker at roughly 45% faster than Chrome running AdBlock Plus — a direct shot at both Google's performance baseline and the extension-based blocking model that AdBlock Plus pioneered. The move landed in developer builds first, with a stable-channel and Opera Mini rollout following within weeks.
The competitive frame matters: Brave had already staked its identity on being an ad-blocking browser, and Opera later doubled down by shipping inbuilt tracking protection using the EasyPrivacy list in Opera 64 — evidence that blocking became a permanent product pillar, not a one-off feature.
First-order effects
- Opera desktop users get faster page loads without installing an extension, while AdBlock Plus loses its role as the middleman delivering that speed on Opera's platform.
- Publishers and ad networks see ad inventory silently stripped from Opera traffic, since the block is on by default rather than opt-in.
Second-order effects
- Google faces a marketing problem for Chrome: a rival can now claim a large speed advantage purely by not loading ads, pressuring Chrome to defend its performance story against a category Brave also competes in after moving to Chromium while keeping its own blocking stack.
- Extension developers like AdBlock Plus are pushed toward differentiation beyond raw blocking — filter-list curation, acceptable-ads economics — because the browser vendor can replicate the core function natively.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, ad-blocking and tracking protection migrate from user-installed add-ons to default browser features, shifting power over what reaches the page from extension makers to browser vendors — a shift Opera itself continued with built-in VPN, crypto wallet, and tracking protection across later releases.
- That consolidation makes the browser the de facto regulator of web advertising economics, a structural change that affects every publisher dependent on third-party ad delivery regardless of which engine they target.
The trend: Browser vendors are internalizing ad-blocking and privacy protection as first-party features, displacing the extension ecosystem that once owned that layer.