Eugene's observations

Adblockers are software interfaces that strip out adverts from web pages.  Detractors suggest that by blocking advertisements the publishers will have to turn to other less palatable methods of realising income e.g. subscriptions.  Also, they are an additional layer of software to potentially fail, and they may block adverts you actually want to see.  Also, they often block trackers that enable the most relevant advertisements to be placed before potential customers. 

However their use is steadily rising as advertisements become more intrusive. For those on limited bandwidth blocking advertisements can double the speed with which pages load.  They are mostly used by younger viewers who do not want the audio or visual interruption annoying them.  By reducing the speed sapping graphics to a minimum, pages do display faster. This is probably most significant on mobiles where the data transmitted eats into a tight budget.

The biggest name in the field is Adblock-Plus which is free and available as an add-in for all main browsers. As well as blocking ads it can discourage tracking and block known malware servers.  For those seeking alternatives uBlock Origin is a common choice too.