In the typical top US app, 22% of "DIRECT" seller lines point to seats the publisher doesn't own.
DIRECT should mean the publisher controls the account. We found 3,505 seats that unrelated companies all label DIRECT, and seats that ad systems themselves list as resellers. Buyers who prefer direct paths pay for an extra hop. Public files, line-level evidence.
Grade distribution
1451 graded apps. Grades scale with the share of problem lines, so big files aren't punished for size.
Most common issues
Share of graded apps with at least one occurrence.
By genre
Median share of an app's DIRECT lines that point to seats the publisher doesn't own. Genres with 5+ graded apps.
Lowest scores in this crawl
Apps that publish app-ads.txt but whose lines most often fail verification. Full leaderboard →
| Grade | Score | App | Developer | Lines | Top issue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F | 0 | Meta Platforms, Inc. | 0 | No app-ads.txt | |
| F | 0 | YouTube Music | Google LLC | 0 | No app-ads.txt |
| F | 0 | Cleanup: Phone Storage Cleaner | Deep Flow Apps | 0 | No app-ads.txt |
| F | 0 | Google LLC | 0 | No app-ads.txt | |
| F | 0 | Snapchat | Snap Inc | 0 | No app-ads.txt |
| F | 0 | Google Chrome | Google LLC | 0 | No app-ads.txt |
| F | 0 | Prime Video | Amazon Mobile LLC | 0 | app-ads.txt has no valid lines |
| F | 0 | Amazon Prime Video | AMZN Mobile LLC | 0 | app-ads.txt has no valid lines |
| F | 0 | CARROT Weather | Grailr LLC | 0 | No app-ads.txt |
| F | 0 | HuntStand: GPS Maps & Tools | GSM Outdoors | 0 | No app-ads.txt |
Ad systems that can't be verified
Of 1204 ad systems authorized by 3+ developers, only 748 publish a complete, readable sellers.json. The rest leave buyers guessing. All ad systems →
| Ad system domain that doesn't resolve | Developers still authorizing it | Lines |
|---|---|---|
| spotxchange.com | 389 | 3,958 |
| engagebdr.com | 302 | 2,256 |
| districtm.io | 298 | 736 |
| gamoshi.io | 210 | 892 |
| ylhglobal.com | 190 | 213 |
| reforge.in | 151 | 381 |
| showcaesad.com | 66 | 69 |
| antipodesdigital.live | 62 | 76 |
| dmixer.co.kr | 59 | 66 |
| acex.adprime.com | 48 | 49 |
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