Ranking the most common types of Invalid Traffic (IVT) across Connected TV (CTV) app traffic in January 2026. See how Proxy, High Risk Device ID, High Risk App, and other types of IVT impacted global open programmatic advertising traffic on Amazon Fire TV.
This report ranks the most common types of IVT based on global data from January 2026. Rankings are determined by IVT Share of Voice (SOV, %), which measures each IVT type relative to total IVT rather than total impressions.
Pixalate’s data science team analyzed 1.9 billion Connected TV (CTV) open programmatic ad impressions worldwide to produce these insights. The findings are derived exclusively from Pixalate’s datasets, which consist primarily of buy-side open-auction programmatic traffic.
Pixalate identifies the country of traffic using IP address data and geolocation signals.
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. Ad traffic may be classified as invalid when it comes from non-human sources (spiders, bots, etc.), or from activity intended to generate 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 the U.S. Court or other legal proceedings, but rather a custom definition strictly for advertising measurement purposes.”
To learn more about the types of IVT monitored by Pixalate, review this Knowledge Base article.
Pixalate is a global platform for privacy compliance, ad fraud prevention, and data intelligence in the digital ad supply chain. Founded in 2012, Pixalate’s platform 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 MRC-accredited for the detection and filtration of Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT).
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Disclaimer: The content of this page reflects Pixalate’s opinions with respect to the factors that Pixalate believes can be useful to the digital media industry. Any proprietary 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 - opinion, not facts or guarantees.
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. Also per the 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.”
