Report: More than 198 million people now use an adblocker

No surprise here: adblocking is on the rise in 2015, having gone up by 41 percent since last year.

A report published by PageFair and Adobe shows that nearly 200 million people currently use adblocking tools, and it’s estimated that this will cost publishers more than $21.8 billion in lost revenue.

That’s just six percent of the global internet population, but it’s worth noting that their adblocking habits account for 14 percent of the global ad spend. The report adds that in 2016, it will cost publishers over $41 billion.

Whichever side of the debate you’re on, this report indicates that the practice is picking up. PageFair, whose main business is products that circumvent adblocking tools, notes that it’s gone up by 48 percent since 2014 in the US and by 82 percent in the UK.

While mobile devices accounted for 38 percent of all browsing in the second quarter of 2015, PageFair says that it served less than two percent of its alternative ads on phones and tablets.

As adblocking browser plug-ins and apps begin to show up on popular mobile platforms (Apple’s upcoming iOS 9 might allow third-party adblocking tools), we can expect that number to rise steadily in the months to come.

Of course, it’s worth bearing in mind that these numbers chalk out the growing market that PageFair serves.

➤ The 2015 Ad Blocking Report [PageFair Blog]

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