Pixalate’s February 2023 Mobile Invalid Traffic Overlap Report Reveals Botnet-like Behavior: Peacock TV Mobile App Shares >50% IVT Traffic with Tubi, Pluto TV, and Philo

Xumo, MTV, Peacock TV among top Android Apps affected, Bricks n Balls, Merge Monster Craft Runner among top iOS Apps affected 

LONDON, March 23, 2023 -- Pixalate, the market-leading fraud protection, privacy, and compliance analytics platform for Connected TV (CTV) and Mobile Advertising, today released the Mobile IVT Overlap Report Series: February 2023. The series reveals which Google Android and Apple iOS mobile apps share elevated levels of invalid traffic (IVT).

Pixalate’s monthly analysis of suspicious traffic patterns between mobile devices and apps provides advertising buyers and sellers the data necessary to combat potential ad fraud. Traffic overlap is one signal for potential botnets - which do exist in the mobile app ecosystem.

To learn more about our IVT Overlap analysis and the methodology used to create these top impacted apps charts, please visit our inaugural IVT Overlap Report blog post.

Key findings:

• Xumo Play, MTV and CBS Interactive among Google Play Store apps apparently targeted, with up to 50% shared IVT traffic
• Bricks n Balls, Merge Monster and Alarm Clock for Me - Wake Up! among Apple iOS App Store apps apparently targeted with over 50% shared IVT traffic
• Popular apps like Tubi, Pluto TV and Plex were found to be associated with the apps with the most overlap on Google Play store indicating that these apps may also be targeted

Top Mobile Apps with Overlapping Invalid Traffic in February 2023

Here’s how to read the table:

• The apps on the left are the targeted apps
• The “Associated apps” column shows apps that the IVT-generating devices also visited
• The “Overlap % range” column shows what percentage of the targeted apps’ IVT was shared with each respective associated app

Android Apps

• Xumo Play: Over 50% shared IVT with Tubi, Pluto TV and Plex (i.e., over 50% of all fake traffic on Xumo Play also visited Tubi, Pluto TV and Plex)
• MTV : Over 50% shared IVT with Pluto TV - Live TV and Movies, Tubi - Movies & TV Shows, Philo: Live and On-Demand TV
• CBS News : Over 50% shared IVT with Tubi - Movies & TV Shows, Pluto TV - Live TV and Movies, Plex: Stream Movies & TV
• Haystack News : Over 50% shared IVT with Pluto TV - Live TV and Movies, Tubi - Movies & TV Shows, Plex : Stream Movies & TV
• Peacock TV : Over 50% shared IVT with Tubi - Movies & TV Shows, Pluto TV - Live TV and Movies, Philo: Live and On-Demand TV

iOS Apps

• Bricks n Balls: 30- 50% shared IVT with Sudoku.com - Number Games, Tap & Say - Travel Phrasebook, Learn French -Travel in France
• Merge Monster Craft Runner : over 50% shared IVT with Color Friend vs 100 Doors, Merge Alphabet: Lord Run, Color Monster Alphabet Friends
• Alarm Clock for Me - Wake Up! : over 30% shared IVT with Which Animal Are You?, Learn German - Phrasebook, Learn Spanish-Spain Phrasebook
• Solitaire Dragons : over 10-50% shared IVT with Learn Spanish-Spain Phrasebook, Learn German - Phrasebook, Learn Spanish (Latin American)
• Dominoes Battle: The Best Game  : over 30-50% shared IVT with Learn German - Phrasebook, Learn Spanish-Spain Phrasebook, Survival RPG 1: Treasure hunt

To view a full list of mobile apps with most IVT overlap, download it here:

About Pixalate

Pixalate is the market-leading fraud protection, privacy, and compliance analytics platform for Connected TV (CTV) and Mobile Advertising. We work 24/7 to guard your reputation and grow your media value. Pixalate offers the only system of coordinated solutions across display, app, video, and CTV for better detection and elimination of ad fraud. Pixalate is an MRC-accredited service for the detection and filtration of sophisticated invalid traffic (SIVT) across desktop and mobile web, mobile in-app, and CTV advertising. www.pixalate.com

Disclaimer

The content of this press release, and the Mobile Invalid Traffic Overlap Report February 2023 (the "Report"), reflect Pixalate's opinions with respect to factors that Pixalate believes can be useful to the digital media industry. 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 mobile apps in the time period studied.