Picnic, has unveiled the PIQ 10 2026, its annual ranking of the publishers delivering the most consistently high-quality advertising environments on the open web.

Published as part of the Inventory Quality Report 2026, the PIQ 10 reflects a year of significant change in the digital ecosystem, as AI-driven content growth, evolving user behaviour and shifting monetisation strategies continue to reshape what quality looks like in practice.

While the full ranking is available within the report, this year’s results show notable movement across the top tier, with new publishers entering the PIQ 10 and others shifting positions as inventory quality evolves.

The latest results build on Picnic’s 2024 PIQ 10 — which featured publishers such as Yahoo, Nature, Engadget and TechCrunch, but points to a more dynamic landscape, with new entrants emerging and shifting the list as conditions evolve.

As supply expands and the ecosystem changes, even leading publishers must continuously adapt to maintain high standards of user experience, ad delivery and content integrity.

"What’s interesting about this year’s PIQ 10 isn’t just who’s in it but how dynamic it’s become. Quality isn’t fixed. It shifts as the web evolves and the publishers that consistently deliver strong experiences are the ones that stand out," said Matthew Goldhill, CEO and founder at Picnic. 

The PIQ 10 is powered by Picnic’s PIQ (Picnic Inventory Quality) Platform, which evaluates domains using over 100 independent quality signals — from ad behaviour and page experience to publisher characteristics. These signals are combined into a single, transparent quality score, enabling advertisers to identify and curate high-quality environments.

In a market where low-quality supply is rising, the PIQ 10 provides a clear benchmark for where quality truly exists, helping advertisers identify the environments driving meaningful outcomes, and highlighting the publishers setting the standard.

The release comes at a time when nearly half of web inventory now fails Picnic’s quality threshold, increasing the importance of identifying environments that deliver meaningful engagement and business impact.

Explore the full PIQ 10 2026 and findings in the Inventory Quality Report 2026.

Picnic

Picnic is the leader in independent Inventory Intelligence, helping advertisers assess, understand and curate high-quality inventory through the PIQ Data Platform. PIQ scores domains using over 100 signals, from ad density and refresh rates to domain...

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