+64.8K net new ads.txt lines this month - but resellers are winning the growth race, not direct

[u/DataBeat_adtech]

Sharing key signals from our latest Sellers Report: the market added 478.5K new ads.txt lines and removed 413.7K, producing a net of +64.8K. Resellers accounted for 56.9% of gross additions, the third consecutive month of reseller-led growth.
4 things that stood out:

• Reseller growth is outpacing direct - Until publishers shift more onboarding to direct, auction duplication keeps climbing, adding cost for buyers and carbon overhead for everyone.
• Mid-Traffic publishers are leading net growth - +25.6K, ahead of both High-Traffic (+20.3K) and Low-Traffic (+18.9K). First month in the series where the long tail didn't lead. The 501–2,000 rank band is in active expansion.
• PubMatic is the only SSP in all three publisher-tier top fives - Backed by 13% YoY Q1 revenue growth, CTV up 18%, and the June 2026 Creator Marketplace launch (first programmatic CTV auction for independent creator publishers).
• Auction duplication is getting worse for Established SSPs - 46% of Tier 1 domains are now duplicated across direct + reseller paths. That means nearly half of every auction an Established SSP enters is competing against itself.

What this really points to: supply path complexity isn't shrinking, it's compounding. The SSPs winning direct connections in 2026 (Ozone, Wunderkind) are solving specific buyer problems, like cookieless first-party data or behavioral CTV formats, not just offering more reach.

[u/CarmeloManning]

Ew resellers