Digital 2026 Global Report: What Publishers Need to Know

DataReportal – Global Digital Insights has just released the Digital 2026 Global Overview Report, conducted by We Are Social and Meltwater. This is a critical resource for publishers, ad networks, and digital media companies to understand the complete landscape of digital behavior, advertising trends, and shifts in online consumption globally.

>>> You can access the full Digital 2026 Global Report for free here.

The Global “State of Digital” in 2026

According to the Digital 2026 Global Report:

• 6.04 billion internet users worldwide (73.2% global penetration)
• 5.78 billion unique mobile users (70.1% of the global population)
• 5.66 billion active social media identities (68.7% of the global population)

These numbers reflect the massive scale of digital infrastructure and online behavior globally, opening up tremendous opportunities for publishers to leverage data and optimize their monetization strategies.

Additionally, a standout point is the explosive growth of AI platforms in users’ digital lives. Data from Similarweb shows that more than 1 billion people now use AI platforms like ChatGPT each month, while Google’s AI search summaries already reach over 2 billion active users monthly.

---

Global Advertising Market: Massive Opportunity for Publishers

Total Ad Spend Reaches Record High

Global advertising spend will hit $1.16 trillion in 2025, growing 6.5% year-over-year. This represents an enormous revenue pool that publishers can tap into through optimized monetization strategies.

Notably, digital channels now account for 74.4% of total ad spend in 2025, up from 72.7% in 2024. This confirms the ongoing shift toward digital advertising and validates the importance of programmatic platforms for publishers.

Programmatic Advertising Dominates

Programmatic ad spend reached $716 billion in 2025, growing 10% year-over-year and now accounting for 83.2% of all global digital ad spend. This massive figure demonstrates why header bidding platforms have become essential for publishers looking to maximize revenue.

For context, advertisers now spend nearly $2 billion per day on programmatic advertising globally, creating intense competition for quality inventory.

Search Advertising: Still the King

Search ad spend will reach $352 billion in 2025, growing 11.1% annually. That means advertisers spend just under $1 billion per day on search advertising – demonstrating the continued value of search traffic for publishers.

Despite AI growth, search engines remain the #1 source of brand discovery, with nearly 1 in 3 internet users discovering new products through platforms like Google and Bing.

Social Media Advertising Surges

Social media ad spend will reach $277 billion in 2025, growing 13.6% year-over-year – that’s more than $5 billion per week. Social media ads are now internet users’ third most important source of brand awareness, with over 30% discovering brands via social platform ads.

Mobile-First Reality Continues

96% of internet users access the web via mobile devices, while only 59.6% use laptops or computers. This mobile-first reality reinforces the critical importance of mobile-optimized ad formats and responsive design for publishers.

In-app advertising alone totaled $390 billion, with annual growth of 10.8%, highlighting the massive opportunity in mobile app monetization.

Regional Growth Highlights: India and China Lead the Charge

India’s Digital Explosion

More than 1 billion people in India now use the internet, with 70% penetration – a significant jump from 58.4% just months ago. This represents one of the fastest-growing digital markets globally, creating massive inventory potential for publishers targeting Asian audiences.

China’s Massive Scale

China now has 91.6% internet adoption with almost 1.3 billion users, accounting for 21.5% of the global connected population. This makes China the world’s largest internet market and a key consideration for global publishers.

Video and Connected TV: The Next Frontier

YouTube Dominates CTV

YouTube now claims 13.1% of total TV viewing time in the United States (Nielsen), ranking first among all channels. CTV ad formats reach more than 40% of YouTube users globally each month, with even higher rates in premium markets.

In the United States specifically, CTV ads on YouTube can reach 84.6% of the platform’s total audience, making it a compelling channel for video publishers and content creators.

Streaming Takes Over Traditional TV

91.7% of online adults consume streaming TV content each month, and 94.6% watched some kind of online video in the past 30 days. More importantly, streaming services now account for 50.4% of internet users’ total TV watch time, surpassing traditional broadcast and cable.

In the United States – the world’s largest TV advertising market – streaming accounts for nearly 59.4% of total TV viewing time, signaling a fundamental shift in viewer behavior.

Social Media Engagement: Time Is Money

Users Spend Massive Time on Social Feeds

Online adults spend an average of 18 hours and 36 minutes per week using social media, which translates to the world spending roughly 620 million years consuming content on social platforms annually.

Women aged 16 to 24 spend an average of 25 hours and 45 minutes per week scrolling social and video feeds – more than 3 hours and 40 minutes each day. This massive engagement creates significant advertising opportunities for publishers with social distribution strategies.

YouTube Leads in Total Engagement

When measuring cumulative time across all users, YouTube accounts for 50% more total time than WhatsApp (the second-ranked platform) and almost twice as much time as TikTok. However, TikTok users spend the most time per individual session at 1 hour and 37 minutes per day.

The Ad Blocking Challenge: A Revenue Threat

While the advertising market shows tremendous growth, publishers face a critical challenge: ad blocking.

According to GWI (Q2 2025), a significant portion of internet users aged 16+ use ad blockers at least some of the time.

The data reveals the primary reasons users block ads, with “too many ads” (63.5%) and “ads get in the way” (53.5%) leading the list. Privacy concerns (42.4%) and irrelevant ads (39.8%) are also major drivers.

Ad blocking represents a direct threat to the $1.16 trillion advertising opportunity, with publishers losing potential revenue from blocked impressions across their inventory.

---

Applying Digital 2026 Insights: What Publishers Need to Do to Break Through

1. Master Mobile Video and High-Value Ad Formats

The market has decisively shifted. 96% of internet users are on mobile, and streaming (50.4%) has overtaken traditional TV. Publishers focused only on desktop display ads are ignoring the $390 billion in-app market and the massive demand for video.

Action steps:

• Prioritize PubPower’s Instream and Outstream video ad formats and utilize our Custom Video Player.
• Leverage Rewarded Ads , a high-CPM format  perfect for the mobile-first audience (e.g., “Watch this 15s video to access the premium article”).
• Ensure all formats, including Sticky Ads, are non-intrusive on mobile screens to protect user experience and Core Web Vitals.

2. Fight Ad Blocking with Transparency

Ad blockers are a direct threat to the $1.16T opportunity. The top reasons users block ads are “too many ads” (63.5%) and “ads get in the way” (53.5%). This is a user experience problem.

Action steps:

• Balance your advertising rate to optimize the user experience (UX). Avoid an intrusive number of ads
• Implement PubPower’s AdBlock Detector tool (Adblock Bypass Feature / Recover Ad-blocked Revenue ) to identify users with blockers and recover that 10-20% of lost revenue.
• Stop “stacking” ads. Use PubPower’s A/B Testing tool to find the optimal balance between revenue and page speed.
• Implement PubPower’s Lazy Loading feature to ensure ads only load when in view, significantly improving Core Web Vitals.

3. Build Topical Authority for an AI-Driven Search World

Search remains the #1 source for brand discovery ($352B market), but Google’s AI search (reaching 2B users) is changing the game. Publishers must now build AI SEO, deep topical authority and prove E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) to be the source cited by AI.

Action steps:

• Adopt a “Topic Cluster” Model. Create “pillar” pages for broad topics and link them to dozens of specific “cluster” articles to signal deep expertise.
• Focus on Semantic SEO by writing content that answers a spectrum of user questions around a topic, not just a single keyword.
• Structure content with clear Q&A, bulleted lists, and “how-to” steps, as this is the exact format AI summaries and featured snippets pull from.

4. Maximize Programmatic Revenue with Dynamic Bidding

Programmatic accounts for 83.2% of all digital ad spend ($716B). Publishers still relying on a single demand source are leaving money on the table. To win, you must create maximum competition for your inventory.

Action steps:

• Implement Header Bidding using the PubPower platform to connect to 30+ SSPs (like Magnite, OpenX, PubMatic ) with a few clicks.
• Activate PubPower’s Dynamic Floor tool to automatically increase your price floor based on real-time demand, ensuring you never sell an impression for less than it’s worth.
• Use PubPower’s transparent, Unified Reporting Platform to analyze metrics like Bid Rate and Win Rate, giving you the control to optimize your demand partners.

5. Expand Audience & Monetization Across New Channels

The 2026 data shows that audiences are massive and global (1B+ users in India) and highly engaged on social platforms (18.5 hours/week). Publishers must go where the audience is, capture their attention, and drive them back to a transparently monetized web property.

Action steps:

• Use social media (like Facebook, LinkedIn,… ) as a “top-of-funnel” to distribute content, build authority, and drive traffic to your website.
• Analyze your current traffic sources to identify and target high-growth regions like countries in Tier 1, India and Southeast Asia.
• Ensure this new, diverse traffic is monetized effectively with PubPower’s high-yield formats (Video, Rewarded Ads ) that work well for global audiences.

---

About PubPower

PubPower is a self-serve header bidding platform that empowers publishers to maximize ad revenue through transparency, control, and optimized monetization. With over 6 years of experience in programmatic advertising, we’ve helped 3,500+ publishers increase revenue by 20-40% through:

• 30+ SSP integrations in just a few clicks
• Real-time reporting (RPM, CPM, bid rate, win rate)
• Advanced optimization tools (Dynamic Floor, AdBlock Detector, A/B Testing)
• Multiple ad formats (display, video, native, rewarded ads)
• 24/7 support via email and chat

We’re a Google Certified Publishing Partner, serving 120 million daily users and processing 200+ billion monthly impressions.

The digital opportunity is massive: 6 billion people online, $1.16 trillion in ad spend, and growing every day.

The question isn’t whether the opportunity exists—it’s whether you’re optimized to capture it.

If you’re ready to maximize your revenue with complete transparency, create an account and experience PubPower today.

---

This blog post is based on data from the Digital 2026 Global Overview Report by DataReportal, We Are Social, and Meltwater.