pixalate Report: IAB OM, AppLovin, and Meta Dominate Mobile Ad SDK Market in Q1 2025
Pixalate, a leading provider of ad fraud protection and compliance analytics, today released its Q1 2025 Global Mobile App Ad SDK market Share Rankings, revealing a concentrated landscape of key players powering the mobile advertising ecosystem. The reports,analyzing data from both the Google Play Store and Apple app Store,highlight the dominance of a few major software progress kits (SDKs) used by app developers for ad mediation,measurement,and attribution.
Understanding the Mobile Ad SDK Landscape
Third-party SDKs are essential tools for app developers, enabling them to monetize their applications through advertising. These SDKs, created by companies separate from the app developers themselves, facilitate various advertising functions. According to a company release, Pixalate’s analysis is based on “SDK presence,” identifying ad impressions attributed to each integrated SDK within an app – a metric reflecting potential access to impressions rather than direct participation in every sale.
what is SDK presence?
SDK presence indicates the potential reach of an SDK within an app, reflecting access to ad impressions. it’s a key metric for understanding market share and influence.
Android SDK Market Share: IAB OM Leads the Pack
The Android market is largely defined by the widespread adoption of the IAB OM Open Measurement OMSDK, which captured an estimated 95% of ad market share globally in march 2025.Following closely behind are Meta Audience Network (89%), Unity Ads (86%), AppLovin (85%), and Vungle (Liftoff) (83%).
Android Global Market Share Leaders (March 2025)
- IAB OM: 95%
- Meta Audience Network: 89%
- Unity Ads: 86%
- AppLovin: 85%
- Vungle (Liftoff): 83%
Regional variations exist within the Android ecosystem.In north America, the IAB OM Open Measurement OMSDK maintains a slight edge with 96% market share, while Meta Audience Network holds 92%. EMEA sees similar dominance from IAB OM at 95%, with Meta Audience at 88%. The APAC region shows a stronger presence for Mintegral (78%), alongside IAB OM (93%) and Meta Audience Network (86%). latin America (LATAM) demonstrates the highest concentration of IAB OM, reaching 98% market share.
Notably, within the highly competitive “Video Gaming” app category, the IAB OM Open Measurement OMSDK and Unity Ads both achieve near-total penetration at 99%, with applovin (98%), Meta Audience Network (96%), and Vungle (Liftoff) (96%) rounding out the top five.
Video Gaming App Category – Android
- IAB OM: 99%
- Unity Ads: 99%
- AppLovin: 98%
- Meta Audience Network: 96%
- Vungle (Liftoff): 96%
iOS SDK Market Share: AppLovin Takes the Lead
On iOS, AppLovin emerges as the dominant SDK with an estimated 83% global market share. Amazon Ads (74%), Meta Audience Network (64%), Vungle (Liftoff) (62%), and ByteDance TikTok (60%) follow as key players.
iOS Global Market Share Leaders (March 2025)
- AppLovin: 83%
- Amazon Ads: 74%
- Meta audience Network: 64%
- Vungle (Liftoff): 62%
- ByteDance TikTok: 60%
Regional differences are also apparent on iOS. In North America, AppLovin strengthens its position with 84% market share, alongside Amazon ads (80%) and Meta Audience Network (68%). EMEA sees AppLovin at 83%, with Amazon Ads at 74% and ByteDance (TikTok) at 59%. APAC shows a strong showing for ByteDance TikTok (71%), alongside AppLovin (75%) and Meta Audience network (67%).LATAM is led by applovin (79%) and Meta Audience Network (64%).
Similar to Android, “Video Gaming” apps on iOS exhibit high concentration, with AppLovin reaching 99% market share, followed by Amazon Ads (85%), Vungle (Liftoff) (82%), Meta Audience Network (80%), and Appodeal (79%).
Video Gaming App Category – iOS
- AppLovin: 99%
- Amazon Ads: 85%
- Vungle (Liftoff): 82%
- Meta Audience Network: 80%
- Appodeal: 79%
Data Scope and Methodology
Pixalate’s findings are based on the analysis of over 3.8 million mobile apps from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, alongside 28 billion open programmatic advertising transactions during march 2025 (Q1 2025).The full reports offer a more detailed analysis of these trends and are available for download.
Key Data Points
- Apps analyzed: 3.8 Million+
- Advertising Transactions: 28 Billion
- Time period: March 2025 (Q1 2025)
These rankings provide valuable insights into the evolving dynamics of the mobile advertising ecosystem, highlighting the critical role SDKs play in connecting advertisers with app audiences. As the industry continues to prioritize privacy and ad fraud prevention, understanding these market share trends will be crucial for stakeholders across the digital advertising supply chain.
