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Pixalate Releases April 2026 Most Common Mobile App Ad Fraud Types: ‘High Risk Device ID’ Most Common Type Across Google Play Store (28%); ‘High Risk IP’ Most Common on Apple App Store (23%)

May 18, 2026 9:00:00 AM

According to Pixalate research, ‘Device ID Stuffing’ came at second on Google Play Store for the highest fraud Share of Voice (SOV) while ‘Publisher Fraud’ was at the second spot on Apple App Store

LONDON, May 15, 2026 -- Pixalate, an ad fraud and privacy compliance platform, today released the April 2026 Most Common Mobile Ad Fraud Types Report. The report examines the most common types of invalid traffic among mobile apps globally on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. Regional insights are available for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Asia-Pacific (APAC), Latin America (LATAM), and North America.

Pixalate’s data science team analyzed over 25 billion+ open programmatic advertising impressions on 688K+ mobile apps in April 2026.

Top 5 Mobile App Ad Fraud Types- Google Play Store

Rank

Region

Fraud Type

Fraud Share of Voice (SOV) - April 2026

1

GLOBAL

High Risk Device ID

28%

2

GLOBAL

Device ID Stuffing

13%

3

GLOBAL

Masked IP

12%

4

GLOBAL

High Risk IP

10%

5

GLOBAL

Display Impression Fraud

10%

 

Top 5 Mobile App Ad Fraud Types-Apple App Store

Rank

Region

Fraud Type

Fraud Share of Voice (SOV) - April 2026

1

GLOBAL

High Risk IP

23%

2

GLOBAL

Publisher Fraud

19%

3

GLOBAL

Masked IP

15%

4

GLOBAL

High Risk Device ID

11%

5

GLOBAL

Display Impression Fraud

7%

 

Download the April 2026 IVT Types:

Google Play Store     Apple App Store

 

About Pixalate

Pixalate is a global platform specializing in privacy compliance, ad fraud prevention, and digital ad supply chain data intelligence. Founded in 2012, Pixalate is trusted by regulators, data researchers, advertisers, publishers, ad tech platforms, and financial analysts across the Connected TV (CTV), mobile app, and website ecosystems. Pixalate is accredited by the MRC for the detection and filtration of Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT).  pixalate.com

Disclaimer

The content of this press release, and the April 2026 Most Common Mobile App Ad Fraud Types Reports (the "Reports"), reflects Pixalate's opinions with respect to factors that Pixalate believes may be useful to the digital media industry. Any data shared is grounded in Pixalate’s proprietary technology and analytics, which Pixalate is continuously evaluating and updating. Any references to outside sources should not be construed as endorsements. Pixalate's opinions are just that, opinions, which means that they are neither facts nor guarantees. Pixalate is sharing this data not to impugn the standing or reputation of any entity, person or app, but, instead, to report findings and trends pertaining to programmatic advertising activity across in the time period studied. Per the Media Rating Council (MRC), “‘Invalid Traffic’ is defined generally as traffic that does not meet certain ad serving quality or completeness criteria, or otherwise does not represent legitimate ad traffic that should be included in measurement counts. Among the reasons why ad traffic may be deemed invalid is it is a result of non-human traffic (spiders, bots, etc.), or activity designed to produce fraudulent traffic.” Where the traffic characteristics are suggestive of deliberate intent to mislead, such IVT is often referred to as “ad fraud.” Also per the MRC, “'Fraud' is not intended to represent fraud as defined in various laws, statutes and ordinances or as conventionally used in U.S. Court or other legal proceedings, but rather a custom definition strictly for advertising measurement purposes.”

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