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
1417 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 | Cleanup: Phone Storage Cleaner | Deep Flow Apps | 0 | No app-ads.txt |
| F | 0 | CARROT Weather | Grailr LLC | 0 | No app-ads.txt |
| F | 0 | HuntStand: GPS Maps & Tools | GSM Outdoors | 0 | No app-ads.txt |
| F | 0 | Zillow: Homes for Sale & Rent | Zillow Group | 0 | No app-ads.txt |
| F | 0 | AT&T | AT&T Services, Inc. | 0 | No app-ads.txt |
| F | 0 | Deepstash: Smarter Every Day! | Deepstash | 0 | No app-ads.txt |
| F | 0 | GuitarTuna: Tune & Play Guitar | Yousician Ltd. | 0 | No app-ads.txt |
| F | 0 | Taimi: LGBTQ+ Dating & Meet Up | Social Impact Inc. | 0 | No app-ads.txt |
| F | 0 | B1G+: Watch College Sports | Big Ten Network | 0 | app-ads.txt has no valid lines |
| F | 0 | Hily Dating app: Meet & Date | Hily Corp. | 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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