Ad blocking recovery is back on the agenda after AdExchanger reported on November 5, 2026 that WiseGuyGaming, a video game publication, found about 18% of its audience used ad-blocking tech. Those readers were largely invisible to its standard analytics and could not be reached with banner and video ads. If your readers skew technical or privacy minded, part of your traffic may be earning nothing, and your dashboards may not show it.
This guide explains how large the blocked audience is, how one publisher measured its own share, and which tools can help you win back some of that revenue without pushing readers away. It draws on eyeo's 2026 Ad-blocking Report, Google's AdSense help pages, and AdExchanger's reporting.
One note on the data. eyeo makes Adblock Plus and earns licensing fees from the Acceptable Ads program, and its user counts are its own internal estimates. We cite them that way, and we do not estimate revenue figures that no source has published.
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How Big Is the Ad Blocking Audience in 2026?
According to eyeo's 2026 Ad-blocking Report, there were an estimated 1.1 billion global ad-blocking users in Q4 2025, a 13% increase since its 2023 report. eyeo defines an ad-blocking user as someone who explicitly took action to use a product that offers ad blocking as a feature, such as an extension, browser, app, VPN, or DNS service.
The growth is on phones. eyeo estimates 629 million mobile ad-blocking users in Q4 2025, up 27% since 2023. Desktop ad-blocking users fell 4% over the same period, to an estimated 448 million. The report says desktop blocking is down from its 2022 peak but remains stable above 400 million users.
Where that growth comes from matters for your plan. eyeo says the majority of mobile ad-blocking users are in low- or middle-income countries, where the number of ad-blocking users rose 23% since 2023 while higher-income countries saw a 14% drop. eyeo says these users want to cut data costs and get faster page loads on slow mobile networks.
There is a second trend to note. The report also notes that in higher-income countries, a growing number of browsers now block ads by default. In other words, some of your readers may block ads without ever installing an extension, which makes the problem easy to miss if you only look at extension downloads.
Ad Block Rates by Country
eyeo's 2025 ad-blocking rate reference table lists the USA and Canada both at 33%, Germany at 31%, France at 29%, the UK at 27%, India at 25%, and Japan at 15%. Indonesia has the highest rate in the table at 41%, while Ghana has the lowest at 9%. The report's methodology page says those rates were determined from anonymized, aggregate Blockthrough traffic data collected on domains using its technology. The table itself is headed as GWI Consumer Insights Platform, which conflicts with that methodology.
Treat these rates as a guide to market exposure, not a measurement of your own site. Your share depends on who reads you. AdExchanger noted that gamers are very likely to use ad blockers, and that the most dedicated users run advanced tools. Your own rate can differ a lot from a national average.
That is why measurement comes first in any ad blocking recovery plan. A country average tells you whether the issue is worth checking. Only your own data tells you how many page views you are actually losing.
How WiseGuyGaming Measured Its Hidden Audience
WiseGuyGaming launched last year. Co-founder and CEO Mike Smith started it with his son Mikhail after working on audience data and monetization at HBO, Forbes, and Hearst, AdExchanger reported. He soon found that the audience he most wanted, technologically sophisticated gamers, was far more likely than average to run the most sophisticated ad blockers available.
Smith worked with Don Marti, a consultant who specializes in open-source software, digital privacy, and ad tech. Marti explained that two of the most widely used filter lists are EasyList and EasyPrivacy, and that dedicated blockers such as uBlock Origin use both. EasyPrivacy lists FouAnalytics, the site's audience analytics and bot filtration tool, as a domain to block. So, Marti said, a normal install misses those readers.
Their fix was to run the same FouAnalytics script twice. One copy loaded as normal third-party JavaScript. The other loaded through a "proxy pass," a first-party URL on wiseguygaming.com that does not show up on filter lists but is proxied to the same FouAnalytics server. Comparing the two dashboards revealed who blocked the third-party copy but not the first-party one.
Because Google Analytics and FouAnalytics had already filtered out likely bots, the site concluded with reasonable certainty that the remaining 18% still blocking the third-party script was most likely people using ad blockers or bots that had slipped through the filters. The method had one flaw, Marti said: the team had to compare two dashboards in two browser tabs.
Marti also warned that bots are getting harder to separate from people. Services such as Bright Data turn consumer devices like phones and TVs into residential proxies, which makes a bot appear to use a home IP address rather than a data center one. That is a strong reason to use more than one analytics tool before you size the opportunity.
What Ad Blocking Recovery Tools Can Do
Google offers ad blocking recovery inside AdSense, under Privacy & messaging, using its integrated Funding Choices functionality. Google says the message appears only to visitors running ad blocking or script blocking software. It can ask those readers to allow ads, or point them to another way to support your site.
Setup starts with a tag. Google says you must paste the ad blocking tag code between the head tags of your site's HTML before a message can display. There is also optional error protection code, which shows a message if an ad blocking extension blocks access to your site. WordPress publishers who use Google's Site Kit plugin can deploy the tag without coding changes, though they still need to create and publish a message in AdSense.
When you create an ad blocking recovery message, Google offers three placements:
- Centered modal (dismiss): centered on the page with a dark background that partly obscures content. Users can close it.
- Centered modal (non-dismissible): the same layout, but users cannot close it. It is not available for the "Allow ads or dismiss" message type.
- Bottom pinned (dismiss): fixed to the bottom of the page so visitors can still view content. Users can close it.
You can also choose which sites and languages see the message, and add up to 5 page inclusions or exclusions per domain. An optional Custom Choice button lets readers pick an alternative you build, such as a subscription, instead of allowing ads. Google says this requires the googlefc.controlledMessagingFunction function of the Funding Choices API.
The Trade-Off: Forcing Ads Has a Cost
Recovery is not free. eyeo's report says that forcing banner ads on people who use blockers cuts their time on the page by 10 to 20%, lowers their opinion of the site, and makes them notice the banners less. That is a good reason to think hard before choosing a wall that readers cannot close.
The same report describes ad block users as engaged readers, not people trying to disengage. In its survey, 73% of ad block users said they were at least somewhat likely to sign up or log in to read articles, compared with 62% of people who do not block ads. That gap points toward logins and subscriptions as a recovery path, not only allow-listing.
eyeo also reports that total global Acceptable Ads users surpassed 400 million, that mobile Acceptable Ads users increased 42% since 2023, and that 96% of users have Acceptable Ads enabled, up from 94% in 2023. It defines Acceptable Ads as a standard for nonintrusive advertising, with criteria covering ad size, format, placement, and behaviour. Keep in mind that eyeo earns licensing fees from this program, though an independent committee governs it.
Ad quality is part of the same picture. eyeo's report ties ad blocking to widespread dissatisfaction around intrusive ads and data surveillance. Our guides on Chrome's ad density data and on how publishers fight malvertising cover the fixes that reduce that pressure.
7 Smart Steps for Ad Blocking Recovery
1. Measure before you message
Google says you can get ad blocker detection data and reporting metrics without showing anything to readers. Install the ad blocking recovery tag, then create a message and save it in Draft status. AdSense begins detecting ad blockers and reporting on them while the message stays hidden from readers.
2. Cross-check with a second tool
WiseGuyGaming's two-copy method shows why one analytics tool is not enough when filter lists block the tool itself. Filter out bots first, then compare. If your numbers differ widely between tools, investigate before acting.
3. Start with a message readers can close
Given the research eyeo cites on reduced time on page when ads are forced, a dismissible centered modal or a bottom pinned message is a lower risk first test than a non-dismissible wall. Track how readers respond before you tighten anything.
4. Offer a Custom Choice
If you sell memberships, the Custom Choice option lets readers subscribe instead of allowing ads. eyeo's 73% login figure suggests many ad block users would consider an account. Our paywall strategy guide covers how to price and package that offer.
5. Exclude pages where friction hurts most
Use page inclusions or exclusions, up to 5 per domain, to keep the message off pages where an interruption costs more than it recovers. Google notes that if the tag is on a page, a page view still counts in your ad blocking rate even when an exclusion stops the message from showing.
6. Use formats blockers do not target
WiseGuyGaming's immediate answer was more sponsored and native content, which Smith said ad blockers are not configured to recognize. If you go this way, label sponsored work clearly so readers trust what they see.
7. Build direct channels
Smith told AdExchanger the site plans a paid subscription and will use email and push notifications to reach the roughly 18% it found. Direct channels do not depend on an ad script loading at all.
What to Watch Next
Three signals are worth tracking. First, mobile: eyeo's numbers show blocking growth has shifted to phones. Second, browsers: more of them ship blocking by default, which can raise block rates without any reader action beyond picking a browser. Third, bots: as residential proxies spread, separating blocked humans from automated traffic will get harder.
The practical takeaway is simple. Ad blocking recovery works best as a measured program, not a one-time wall. Find your real block rate, test a gentle message, offer readers a fair alternative, and keep the ad experience clean enough that fewer people feel the need to block in the first place.