Ad fraud continues to be a recurring topic, and while there have been great strides to combat it, there’s still a long way to go. App-ads.txt was launched two years ago to create more transparency, but many publishers have yet to implement it. New reports state that app-ads.txt adoption increased 77% in the top 10,000 iOS apps last year. Meanwhile, multiple trends have caused the average mobile game file to grow in size by 76% over the last five years. For more stats, read on for this week’s Mobile Monday!
Over 125,000 iOS Apps Now Have App-ads.txt
Ad fraud intelligence platform, Pixalate recently released Mobile App-Ads.txt Adoption Reports for Google Play Store apps and Apple App Store apps. After analyzing more than 5.5 million apps, the company created these reports to share mobile app-ads.txt adoption trends in 2020. According to their data, from Q1 to Q4 2020, app-ads.txt adoption increased by 79% across the top 10,000 Android apps and 77% across the top 10,000 iOS apps. App-ads.txt (similar to its predecessor ads.txt) was developed by the IAB in order to promote transparency in programmatic advertising.
Although it was released almost two years ago, publishers have been slow to implement the file in their apps. Despite the aforementioned growth, the report states that only 13% of Google Play Store apps have app-ads.txt, which is still a 6% increase over Q1 2020. That corresponds to around 500,000 Android apps. It’s even lower on iOS, with 7% of apps containing the file. Game publishers seem to be the early adopters as 24% of gaming apps on Android, and 22% on iOS are reported to have app-ads.txt.
Average mobile game file size increased 76% over last five years
According to new data from SensorTower, mobile game file sizes are getting larger. Based on an analysis of the top 100 revenue-generating mobile games in the U.S. App Store, the market intelligence firm found that the average game file size was 264MB in 2016 compared to 465MB in 2020. The average file size of mobile games has increased by 76% in the US since 2016. The data also shows that median file size increased 103% over the past five years.
Among the year’s top 10 revenue-generating App Store games, DoubleDown from DoubleDown Interactive saw the largest growth in file size last year, growing by approximately 107% year-over-year. The second fastest riser was Fortnite from Epic Games, which saw its file size expand by 41% before its removal from the App Store and Google Play in August 2020. Clash of Clans from Supercell is also a larger file, growing 37% to approximately 259 MB. The growth in game sizes can be attributed to expanded storage capacity, improved performance, and rising player expectations for content.
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