Discover the top Apple App Store apps that were delisted in Q1 2026 but continued serving programmatic ads. This report ranks mobile apps by the number of ad impressions generated while unavailable for download.
For the purposes of this report, “top delisted apps running programmatic ads in Q1 2026” are defined as mobile applications that generated ad impressions in Q1 2026, passed an App ID in the bid stream, and were not available for download in the Google Play Store or Apple App Store as of March 31, 2026. Rankings are based on the total volume of ad impressions generated while the apps were delisted during the measurement period.
Delisted mobile apps are those that have been removed from official app stores. These removals can occur for several reasons, ranging from violations of app store policies to the developer's voluntary withdrawal.
While some apps are delisted for benign reasons, others are removed as a result of more nefarious behaviors, including ad fraud, and non-compliance with privacy regulations or app store policies, which may cause advertisers to be exposed to potential financial or legal risk as well. Because apps can be delisted for a variety of reasons, Pixalate is neither asserting nor assigning a reason for any delisting action. Additionally, the initiator of the delisting is not generally publicly-available information, so it is often not possible to know whether the removal was triggered by the app store or the developer. Note also that apps may be delisted and then republished to an app store at a later date.
Pixalate is sharing this data not to impugn the standing or reputation of any person, entity, or app, but instead, to report opinions as they pertain to delisted apps.
The removal of these apps from app stores does not necessarily mean they are removed from user devices. According to Pixalate’s data, these apps can still remain on user devices and continue to run, leading to brand safety risks, privacy compliance risks, malware, and ad fraud concerns.
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.”
