A new report from cybersecurity firm CHEQ alleges that over 75% of traffic from X (formerly Twitter) to advertiser websites during the Super Bowl weekend was fake. The platform had claimed impressive growth in user activity during the event—but the report paints a different picture.
According to X, year-on-year Super Bowl weekend activity increased by:
- 31% in impressions
- 41% in user posts
- 75% in video views
But CHEQ’s data analysis indicates that 75.85% of ad traffic from X consisted of bots or fake users.
Why this matters for advertisers
If the majority of clicks on your ads are generated by bots, it means you’re wasting budget on non-human traffic. Not only does this reduce your ROI, but it also skews campaign data—making it much harder to optimise and understand real audience behaviour.
CHEQ’s findings and methodology
The data comes from 144,000 visits to client websites via X ads, tracked during Super Bowl weekend (from February 9 to 11). Although CHEQ notes that this sample size isn’t statistically representative of all traffic, it covers behaviour from a substantial client base across their 15,000 customers.
A shocking level of fake traffic
CHEQ’s founder and CEO, Guy Tytunovich, shared his reaction in an interview with Mashable:
“I’ve never seen anything even remotely close to 50 percent, not to mention 76 percent. I’m amazed… I almost decided not to go out [and publish the X bot data] because we’ve never seen anything like it.”
He added that on other widely used ad platforms bot traffic rarely reaches the 50% mark.
What’s next?
While X continues to report record engagement metrics, advertisers may need to think twice before trusting the numbers, especially if campaign results appear inflated. CHEQ’s findings suggest a need for greater transparency and third-party verification moving forward.
