Apple iOS 16 Adoption Trends: 23% of Users Upgraded Within 3 Weeks of Launch; Pixalate Finds 16.6% Reduction in Ad Fraud on Updated Devices

Study finds that users already on newer iOS versions are most likely to upgrade and that devices running newer versions of iOS are at reduced risk of ad fraud attacks.

Pixalate, the market-leading fraud protection, privacy, and compliance analytics platform for Connected TV (CTV) and Mobile Advertising, examined consumer adoption rates surrounding Apple’s iOS 16, which debuted on September 16, 2022.*

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Pixalate examined open programmatic ad sales on iOS devices from September 1 – 28, 2022 to estimate OS version adoption.

Key Takeaways:

• iOS 16 adoption is 23% three weeks post-launch, according to Pixalate’s estimates.
• Users on newer versions of iOS (iOS 15.5+) were most likely to upgrade to iOS 16. About 1-in-4 iOS 15.5+ users upgraded to the new OS, according to Pixalate’s data, while only 1-in-9 iOS 14 users upgraded.
• Ad fraud rates on devices updated to iOS 16 were 16.6% lower compared to older versions of iOS (14.8% vs. 17.8%).

Pixalate also observed some traffic from iOS 15.7 (released at the same time as iOS 16) devices, but the number appears to be relatively low, indicating that most users opted to go with the major upgrade.

In the time period studied, Pixalate estimates that iOS 16 devices had an average ad fraud (IVT) rate of 14.8%, which was lower than all other versions (17.8% average).

Additionally, according to Pixalate’s data, older OS versions also generally have a higher relative share of invalid traffic. For example, iOS 14 devices appear to generate 6.5% of the total IVT seen on iOS, even though they make up 5.5% of all iOS traffic.

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