As we step into 2025, it’s crucial to reflect on the significant events that shaped the ad-blocking landscape in 2024. These developments not only impacted users and businesses but also set the stage for future trends in digital advertising and user experience.
1. Chrome’s transition to Manifest V3
Google’s long-anticipated move to Manifest V3 (MV3) finally materialized in June 2024, impacting how all extensions operate in this browser. This transition was especially of consequence to the ad-blocking community.
Knowing the changes needed were significant and could negatively impact our users, eyeo began working on updating its extensions (Adblock Plus and AdBlock) when MV3 was first announced. However, not all extensions decided to update. In September of last year, Chrome announced it was ending support for all Manifest V2 extensions, thus phasing uBlock Origin (which did not update its full version) from its store.
We believe users should have control over their online experience on whatever browser they choose. The hard work paid off and we were one of the first web extensions to adopt MV3.
2. Apple introduced Distraction Control
Last spring murmurs of Apple testing a new feature ‘Web Eraser’ sparked controversy in the ad tech world, causing publishers and advertisers to publicly call for Apple not to release it. There was a sigh of relief in June when Apple omitted this at the WWDC but our CPO Vegard Johnsen correctly predicted that based on their history, Apple would still release it, in some shape or form.
And sure enough, when iOS 18 was released it contained a newly named tool ‘Distraction Control’, allowing users to remove unwanted elements from web pages. Apple brought content blocking to its over 1 billion iPhone users. Some wondered if this move by Apple was too blunt of a solution, hurting brands and publishers already trying to do the right thing by removing the chance for balance on the monetization side.
If anything is certain, it’s more critical than ever that publishers diversify revenue and also implement a user-centric approach as integral parts of their revenue strategy. Johnsen notes in a later AdMonsters article, “That balance has always been necessary, of course, but Distraction Control takes it to a new level.”
Adding to that sentiment, exclusive research we undertook with The Harris Poll in 2024 revealed that 43 percent of consumers said they were “very” or “extremely likely” to switch browsers for more ad-blocking capabilities. If you add in the “somewhat likely” consumers, that figure climbs to 85 percent—all of which bodes well for Apple’s plan or some other alternative.
3. Mobile ad blocking is growing
Mobile accounts for approximately half of web traffic worldwide. In the last quarter of 2023, mobile devices (excluding tablets) generated 58.67 percent of global website traffic. As people change how they use the internet, we’ve seen a 30% year-over-year increase in mobile ad blocking since 2022.
Today mobile ad blocking makes up around 55 percent of all ad blocking. Excessive and disruptive advertising still remains a top reason for using ad blockers. In the 2024 eyeo x The Harris Poll research, desktop and mobile users surveyed said online ads were an extremely, very or somewhat frustrating problem, outranking both security and privacy across both groups. But the mobile experience itself seems to be even more annoying overall.
| Online ads | Security | Privacy | |
| Desktop | 73% | 65% | 64% |
| Mobile | 79% | 69% | 68% |
With more people using their mobile devices for browsing and the experience being more frustrating than on desktop, it follows that mobile ad blocking will continue to rise.
4. YouTube cracking down on ad blockers
In late 2023 and all of 2024, YouTube ramped up its efforts to combat ad blockers with server-side injection, automatic video skipping and blocking access after three videos. Users also experienced buffering issues, error messages and warnings that users would be blocked from the site if they didn’t turn off their ad blockers.
These anti-ad-blocking tactics created significant tension in its user relationships. This friction stems from users feeling forced to choose between an ad-filled experience or paying for YouTube Premium.
These measures have often resulted in users taking matters into their own hands to share hacks and tips to skip ads, with some considering other platforms. This tension could have broader implications across the web like the development of new blocking techniques and increased ad blocker adoption. The latter could cause some frustrated users to be more proactive in blocking ads across all websites, potentially impacting the digital advertising ecosystem at large.
YouTube’s aggressive approach could inadvertently contribute to a more widespread and determined ad-blocking culture across the internet, as users become more aware and resistant to intrusive advertising practices.
5. Industry collaboration at the Ad-Filtering Dev Summit
The Ad-Filtering Dev Summit 2024 brought together developers from major browsers like Brave, Mozilla, Google and Opera along with leading ad-blocking and ad-filtering companies like AdGuard and Ghostery. The summit fostered a collaborative environment to facilitate in-depth technical discussions about how to develop and improve upon solutions to enhance and protect the user experience.
The attendees, representing competitors in ad tech, put their collective knowledge together for the betterment of the web with innovative ideas to improve the user experience and morally approach issues in privacy and AI. What’s plaguing the internet now cannot be fixed unless the industry can work together and keep the user top of mind. We hope this event ignites a spark that inspires others in the industry to join forces and drive collective progress.
Looking forward
Technology is advancing at an unprecedented pace—faster internet speeds, breakthroughs in AI, and an ever-expanding range of devices connecting us to the internet, from phones and TVs to appliances, smartwatches, tablets, and even cars. But with all this progress, the user experience is broken. People are overwhelmed by relentless advertising and increasingly worried about privacy and data collection.
Ads—which are essential to keeping the internet an equal access resource—need to respect the user experience. Otherwise, users will continue to look for ways to avoid them, creating unnecessary antagonism with publishers and possibly pushing more users to all-out ad-blocking tactics, which creates a lose-lose for all parties.
The ads-for-content value exchange is eroding, putting a freely, accessible web in jeopardy. A problem as pervasive as this doesn’t have a simple solution, but we know where to start- let’s as an industry agree to prioritize the user experience, not to our detriment but in order to thrive.
Click here for further reading on how we can create a user-centric web.
