According to Pixalate’s MFA research, Pixalate flagged 1,508 mobile apps as likely Made for Advertising (MFA) in Q3 2025, a net increase of 233 apps from Q2 2025
LONDON, Dec. 05, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Pixalate today released its Q3 2025 Global Made for Advertising (MFA) Mobile Apps Benchmarks Report.
This report details open programmatic advertising activity and trends for mobile apps identified by Pixalate as likely MFA across the Google Play Store and Apple App Store in Q3 2025 (September).
Key Findings
- MFA App Count: 1,508 mobile apps were flagged by Pixalate as likely MFA in Q3 2025 (1,105 on Google Play Store; 403 on Apple App Store), an increase of 233 from Q2 2025 (June) to Q3 2025 (September)
- Anonymous Registration: 1,155 flagged MFA mobile apps (77%) had an “anonymous” country of registration (859 on Google Play Store; 296 on the Apple App Store)
- Top Category: “Games” had the highest volume of MFA-flagged apps, totaling 954 apps (674 on Google Play Store; 280 on the Apple App Store)
Methodology
Pixalate’s data science team analyzed 22 billion global open programmatic advertising impressions and 215,000 mobile apps across the Google Play Store and Apple App Store in Q3 2025 (September). The analysis highlights the presence of MFA mobile apps based on specific outlier characteristics, including ad refresh rate, popularity score, and user reviews.
Download the Reports
About Pixalate
Pixalate is a global platform specializing in privacy compliance, ad fraud prevention, and digital ad supply chain data intelligence. Founded in 2012, Pixalate 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 accredited by the MRC for the detection and filtration of Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT). pixalate.com
Disclaimer
The content of this press release, and the Q3 2025 Global Made For Advertising Benchmarks Report for Mobile Apps (the “Report”), reflects Pixalate’s opinions with respect to factors that Pixalate believes may be useful to the digital media industry. Any 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, 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 in the time period studied. 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. 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.” 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 U.S. Court or other legal proceedings, but rather a custom definition strictly for advertising measurement purposes.”
Nina Talcott
