The company says the surge is attributable to a busy global sporting calendar rather than to a single tournament or event. Multiple events across Europe, APAC, and the Americas, including Six Nations Championship rugby, the 2026 Winter Paralympics, basketball, the start of the 2026 FIA Formula One World Championship™ and 2026 Australian Rules Football (AFL) seasons, all contributed to the record-breaking figure.

The data is representative of a familiar pattern of growth over the last three to four years, where sports-led peaks become normal traffic within a matter of months. The company expects to hit 11.5 billion ads stitched as standard monthly traffic by the end of the summer. In the meantime, the FIFA World Cup 2026™ will undoubtedly drive new records as at least 14 Yospace customers worldwide will carry matches.

With ad loads generally remaining consistent across Yospace’s broadcaster customers, the increase in traffic is mainly attributable to changing viewing behaviors as more and more consumers stream to the main screen in the living room. This change in viewer behaviour is in turn enabling broadcasters and media owners to increase the amount of their inventory that is addressable. As OTT advertising revenues come into sharp focus for many broadcasters, the reliability and scalability of their entire adtech ecosystem, including dynamic ad-insertion (DAI), becomes increasingly mission critical.

There is significant room for further growth, too. On top of the viewer trend towards streaming, new advertising opportunities are emerging through renewed industry collaboration and emerging specifications. The efficiency of Server-Guided Ad Insertion (SGAI) enables longer DVR windows in live streams, which opens up historic ad breaks for dynamic ad replacement. Meanwhile, the IAB Tech Labs’ Ad Format Hero initiative is bringing new ad formats to SSAI and SGAI streams.