The global connected TV (CTV) ad market hit $5.7 billion in Q2 2025, but a stubborn 18% of that spend was lost to invalid traffic, according to a new report from analytics firm Pixalate. The figure marks a slight 3% dip in spending year-over-year.
A hardware lottery: Ad fraud rates vary wildly by device, with invalid traffic on Samsung Smart TVs reaching a staggering 39%. Roku devices fared the best with the lowest rate at just 12%, while Latin America’s ad ecosystem proved the riskiest region with a 30% fraud level.
An identity crisis: A key vulnerability remains the chaotic system of app identification, where a significant portion of ad traffic flows through unofficial or “unmapped” Bundle IDs. This problem is most pronounced on Roku, where 19% of ad calls use non-official IDs, creating a prime opportunity for fraud and misrepresentation in the supply chain.
Following the money: A separate August 2025 ranking from Pixalate shows where valid ad dollars are landing, with Hulu leading on Roku and Pluto TV commanding the top spot on Amazon Fire TV. The "Movies & TV" category continues to dominate ad share across all platforms, capturing 72% of traffic on Fire TV alone.
The CTV ad market remains a massive opportunity, but these persistent fraud and identity issues show the ecosystem still has fundamental plumbing problems to solve before advertisers can fully trust where their billions are going.
While Roku leads in North America, the global device landscape looks very different, with Xiaomi dominating in APAC and a low adoption rate of the app-ads.txt standard hobbling transparency across the board. In other trends, app popularity varies significantly by region, with different streaming services leading the pack in North America versus EMEA and LATAM.
