The research is based on 22B installs from January 2022 to February 2023, and 24 thousand apps with 2000+ monthly installs.
General numbers
- $5.4B is the overall damage from the fraud activity.
- In the second half of 2022, iOS fraud installs increased by 40% compared to the year’s first half. On Android, the growth was 46% in the same period.
- Games are the most fraud-protected verticals. Fraud numbers in games are 6x times lower than in non-gaming apps.
Fraud in games
- The fraud damage to the gaming in 2022 is valued at $206M.
- Leaders by fraudulent traffic are Europe, APAC, and North America.
- There are relatively low fraudulent numbers in the hypercasual and casual segments – around 1-2%. However, there has been a growth in hypercasual in recent months.
- About 4% – 7.5% of fraud traffic in mid-core on iOS. On Android, it’s a little lower – 2.5% – 4%.
- Casino games are the most fraud-heavy segment. In the first months of 2023, fraud installs reached 12.72% on Android and 9.3% on iOS.
Fraud methods in gaming
- Bots are the main fraud activity in games.
- Fake publishers are popular in the hypercasual segment.
- Clicks spam is heavily used in mid-core and casino games.
A benchmark by country and verticals is available in the full version of the report.
