AdGuard ad trackers report: What advertising-based surveillance does to your traffic

It’s that time of year again — AdGuard’s annual look at the hidden side of your internet traffic. We’re talking about all the extra traffic your browser has to handle that isn’t the content you actually clicked on — but requests to ad networks, trackers, and other hidden services that quietly run in the background every time you load a page. The whole process happens behind the scenes, like an invisible internet tax. The pages you want still load, but at the same time your data is quietly feeding ad networks and trackers, paying for content in ways you never agreed to. Almost every click becomes part of a massive, invisible marketing machine that monetizes your habits without your knowledge.

Most people don’t talk about this. It’s treated as an unspoken agreement between website owners and marketers, where you — the user — apparently aren't supposed to have any say in the matter.

We’re not claiming to fix the system, that would be a tall order. But we do want to shine a light on what’s happening behind the scenes and show you just how much it costs in wasted traffic. We determined that ad trackers — our umbrella term for ads that are also trackers, and almost all of them are — accounted for roughly 10.22% of global internet traffic in 2025 — but this only reflects the initial, “raw” requests. The real numbers are even worse: many ad trackers, if unblocked, can trigger a chain of hidden tracking requests, which we call “hidden ad trackers.” Before we dive into the numbers, though, it helps to understand how these requests actually multiply behind the scenes.

Hidden ad and tracking requests — what are they

Whenever you visit a web page, your browser doesn’t just load the content you see, it also makes a series of requests to external servers, many of which are for ads or trackers. Some of these requests trigger additional requests behind the scenes: for example, a single request to an ad server (a primary request) can prompt several secondary requests to related services, which, in turn, can trigger even more requests, creating a cascading chain of network activity. To estimate the impact of these hidden chains, we calculated that each blocked primary DNS request prevents, on average, about four additional requests from ever being sent — 4.17 to be precise. That means that without blocking these “bad” requests, ad trackers could account for up to 40% of global internet traffic.

It’s getting worse: more ad trackers in 2025 than in 2024

Our findings suggest that ad and tracker-generated traffic continues to grow, and that growth shows no signs of slowing down across the board. In 2024, ad trackers accounted for about 7.84% of global internet traffic, but in 2025 that figure has, for the first time since we started conducting this survey in 2023, climbed into double digits, reaching 10.22%. This increase may partly be explained by improved filter capabilites, but it could also reflect a broader trend: a growing share of internet activity consists not of the content users actively request, but of background requests generated by advertising systems, tracking services, and the infrastructure that supports them.

Overall, the numbers suggest that advertising-based surveillance is becoming a more significant part of everyday web traffic. While this doesn’t necessarily mean a worse user experience in visible terms — as the era of large, intrusive banner ads is slowly fading — it does mean that more of the internet’s bandwidth is being consumed by systems operating in the shadows, often without the user’s explicit awareness or consent.

North and Central America: widespread increase

Across North and Central America, ad and tracker-related traffic has gone up almost everywhere with a very few exceptions. What was already a noticeable share in 2024 has significantly increased in 2025, with many countries now sitting in a similar 10–13% range, in line with the global average.

Larger countries have set the tone for the overall trends in the region. The US rose from 6.61% to 10.25%, moving into double digits and showing that this is a broad, system-wide change, not something limited to smaller countries. Mexico increased from 7.49% to 11.61%, accounting for one of the biggest jumps among major economies in the region. Canada (from 6.49% to 9.86%) follows the same pattern, moving close to the 10% level. Jamaica (from 6.01% to 11.43%) also stands out, joining the higher group of countries.

In the Caribbean, several countries are now among the highest in the world in terms of ad and tracker-related traffic share. Trinidad and Tobago (6.33% → 12.94%) is one of the most striking examples, doubling in a single year. Haiti (6.32% → 10.24%) and Puerto Rico (6.49% → 9.84%) have also shown steady increases, joining the wider regional upward trajectory. Cuba is the only clear exception, slipping slightly from 11.44% to 10.04%.

What stands out most in this region is how similar the trend is across very different countries. Large countries like the US and Mexico are moving in the same direction as smaller Caribbean and Central American countries, making the overall landscape more uniform and ad-heavy.

Latin America: steady rise

South America shows one of the clearest and most consistent upward trends in ad and tracker-related traffic. Across almost all major countries, values have moved from the mid–single digits in 2024 into the 10–12% range in 2025. Just like it was the case with North and Central America, the change is not driven by a few isolated spikes, but rather by a broad shift happening across the entire region.

The strongest increases come from the Andean countries. Peru stands out with one of the biggest jumps in the region, rising from 6.60% to 12.51%, which effectively amounts to doubling in just one year. Colombia follows a very similar pattern, increasing from 7.53% to 11.59%, while Ecuador moved from 6.37% to 11.48%.

Further inland, the relative growth is even more striking. Bolivia rose from 4.82% to 10.97%, and Paraguay from 5.97% to 11.42%. Both moved quickly into double-digit levels. This reflects a catch-up effect, where countries that were at lower levels last year are now quickly reaching the same range as their neighbors.

In the southern part of the continent, the change is a bit more gradual. Chile increased from 6.56% to 10.84%, and Uruguay from 6.80% to 10.86%. Both entered double digits, showing that even the more stable and mature economies are not exempt from the same overall upward movement.

The larger economies follow the same direction, but at a slower pace. Argentina rose from 6.76% to 10.06%, while Brazil increased from 7.60% to 9.58%. Brazil’s growth is more modest in percentage terms, but given its size, even smaller shifts represent a significant amount of traffic.

Overall, South America is moving in a very consistent way, and the main takeaway is simple: ad and tracker-related traffic is increasing across the continent, and most countries are now sitting at comparable levels rather than distinctly different ones.

Europe: a very uneven map

Europe showed a moderate rise in ad and tracker-related traffic compared to other regions. In most countries, the increase sits in the 2 to 4 percentage point range, which points to gradual growth rather than any sharp shift. But beneath this stability, Europe is clearly divided into tiers that display very different dynamics.

The most meaningful increases come from Eastern and Southeastern Europe, where growth is both stronger and more consistent. Belarus stands out with a sharp rise from 7.61% to 13.20%, placing it among the highest in the region. Greece (9.47% → 12.05%) and Serbia (6.91% → 11.59%) also showed clear growth, moving into double digits. Ukraine (6.59% → 11.56%) and Turkey (7.97% → 11.20%) follow the same pattern, with both countries rising into a similar range.

Western Europe, by contrast, shows a more gradual progression. Spain increased from 8.85% to 10.36%, Italy from 7.75% to 9.81%, and France from 7.38% to 9.35% — all steady but hardly dramatic gains. The UK (6.61% → 9.61%) also crossed into higher territory, but fell short of the double-digit mark.
Northern Europe remains the most stable part of the continent as far as the share of ad trackers go. Germany (6.93% → 8.89%) and the Netherlands (6.39% → 7.92%) showed slow, consistent increases, while Sweden (5.41% → 6.98%).

Overall, Europe is not moving as a single block. Instead, it shows a clear pattern: faster growth in the East and Southeast, moderate and steady increases in Western Europe, and low, stable levels in the North. This creates a continent where ad and tracker-related traffic is growing, but at very different speeds.

Asia: a split picture between upward and downward trends

Asia doesn’t move in a single direction — instead, it shows one of the most mixed and structurally diverse patterns in the entire dataset.

On one side of the story, there is clear and visible growth. Countries like the UAE (7.50% → 11.49%) and Saudi Arabia (6.53% → 10.53%) show strong upward movement, both crossing into double-digit territory. Japan (6.74% → 9.52%) and Indonesia (5.96% → 8.81%) follow the same direction, reflecting steady growth in ad and tracker-related traffic across major economies in the region. Even China, while still at a relatively low baseline, continues its gradual rise from 2.20% to 3.63%.

At the same time, another group of countries is moving in the opposite direction — or at least cooling after earlier highs. India declined from 12.48% to 11.12%, still high in absolute terms, but showing a slight correction compared to last year. Uzbekistan also eased slightly from 13.84% to 12.73%, though it remains among the higher values in the region.

Africa — broad and steady growth across the board

Africa shows one of the clearest and most consistent upward trends in ad and tracker-related traffic.

In many of the larger countries, the increase is especially visible. South Africa, for instance, rose sharply from 7.80% to 13.69%, making it one of the biggest jumps among major economies globally. Nigeria (7.80% → 10.19%) and Egypt (7.79% → 10.64%) also moved into double digits, showing that this trend is not limited to a single country, but shared across the whole continent. Morocco (6.58% → 10.37%) and Kenya (5.89% → 9.82%) follow the same path, moving into higher levels over the year.

Even countries with lower starting points in terms of ad tracking traffic share showed the same direction of change. Botswana showed a particularly strong increase, rising from 6.96% to 12.28%, joining the group of countries that moved into double-digit levels.

Overall, Africa’s trend is simple and quite consistent: most countries are moving upward together. The pace varies from place to place, but the direction is the same across the board.

Winners and losers

Looking at all regions together, one trend stands out very clearly: ad and tracker-related traffic has increased almost everywhere between 2024 and 2025. The global shift is not extreme in every country, but it is consistent enough to show how much background advertising infrastructure is increasingly embedded into everyday browsing.

At the top end of the global scale, several countries now sit at notably high levels. Papua New Guinea (13.80%) and South Africa (13.69%) lead the group, closely followed by Belarus (13.20%) and Tajikistan (12.92%). The Caribbean and nearby regions also stand out, with Trinidad and Tobago reaching 12.94%, while Zimbabwe (12.79%) confirms the same trend in Africa.

China (3.63%) sits at the very bottom of the dataset, followed by Iran (4.65%), while parts of Northern and Western Europe also show relatively low levels, including Denmark (6.26%), Luxembourg (6.43%), and Norway (6.52%). These patterns match what we’ve seen in Europe and parts of Asia: more stable digital environments, where growth is slower.

Conclusion

Taken together, these numbers suggest a global pattern. When comparing our data from 2024 and 2025, we’ve noticed that higher values in terms of ad tracker traffic growth were mostly found in fast-growing regions like parts of Africa, the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe, where internet use is expanding quickly and advertising systems grow alongside it. Lower values were more common in the countries with already developed or tightly managed online markets, where infrastructure is already well developed, rules are stricter, or traffic levels are more stable.

However, the overall rise in ad and tracker-related traffic likely comes from a mix of things. First, ads are becoming more and more deeply built into websites and apps, which creates more background requests while people browse. Second, better filtering and detection tools, such as those used by AdGuard, can also change what we see in the data, making some traffic easier to spot than before.

In simple terms, this is not just about “more ads.” It shows how the web is changing — with more background activity linked to advertising and tracking, growing at different speeds depending on how developed, regulated, or optimized each region’s internet system is.