"I clicked a suspicious link on a piracy site and it showed me this one's ad": a Chrome extension selling popup blocking through popups, two and a half months and 300k users
What it is A free Chrome ad-blocking extension built specifically against popups, redirects and fake download buttons on pirated movie, anime and cracked-game sites.
Why it took off It buys installs through the popup ads on the piracy sites themselves, its landing page names 61 sites, and it catches people looking for a blocker after uBlock Origin left Chrome. The same team has opened three brands on the same codebase.
CHow you could follow it Don't build yet another "Ad Block Something." Copy its approach: pick a scenario where users are annoyed right now and traffic is cheap, match the copy and landing page word for word to that scenario, buy traffic where the pain happens, and set up install attribution properly.
300,000 users · rating 4.626666666666667 (143)
Ad Block Ghost is a free Chrome ad-blocking extension listed in Aug 23. Two and a half months later the store shows 300k users. Its features are no different from dozens of similar ones. What it got right is picking the right crowd: people fed up with popups on pirated movie, anime and cracked-game sites. And it most likely bought those people through the popups themselves. Below: what it is, where its users come from, where the non-paid money comes from, and how much room is left on this path.
Sep 8, a post that "doesn't compete with uBO"
In 2026 Sep 8, the Ad Block Ghost developer posted on Reddit's r/browsers titled "Testing a companion ad blocker focused specifically on streaming/download mirrors," testing a "companion" blocker aimed at streaming and download mirror sites. The post opens by stating its position:
To be clear from the start: this is not an attempt to replace or rival uBlock Origin. uBO is the gold standard… (To be clear from the start: this is not an attempt to replace or rival uBlock Origin. uBO is the gold standard…)
One reply under the post says more than the post itself:
not sure if its you, but if i click on somthing sketchy on a pirating website then it will send me an ad for ghost popup blocker (not sure if its you, but if I click on something sketchy on a pirating website, it shows me an ad for the Ghost popup blocker)
A popup blocker advertising itself through popups. That single reply is basically how it grew.
What it is: a blocker that only targets piracy sites
The store listing focuses on two kinds of sites: "video and streaming sites" (clickjacking, new-tab floods, popups) and "download sites" (fake Download buttons, fake virus warnings, malicious redirects). The official site adblockghost.com is more direct: "61 familiar haunts," 45 movie and anime sites, 16 game download and repack sites, each with its logo. FitGirl Repacks, DODI Repacks, SteamRIP, HydraHD, Miruro, animepahe and PrimeWire are all on it. The site names aren't tucked away; they're the main content of the homepage.
The other features are standard for blockers: cookie banner blocking, manual element hiding, and optional YouTube ad fast-forward (the site says it's "a toggle," off by default so YouTube's anti-blocking doesn't break playback). Underneath is declarativeNetRequest plus generic filter rules under Chrome's new rules, which anyone can use, so there's no technical barrier.
The official site is polished: a little ghost, "Your web. Unhaunted." and an interactive demo of popups disappearing. It looks far more legitimate than its peers.
300k users, 143 ratings
| Date | users | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 8-28 | About 10k | — |
| 11-01 | 200k | 131 |
| 11-02 | 300k | 132 |
| 11-06 | 300k | 143 |
Source: the 8-28 figure comes from a third-party review that day ("Ten thousand people are already on it"); the rest comes from the Chrome Web Store listing. The store shows user counts in tiers, so 11-02 going from 200k to 300k just means it crossed a tier. It doesn't mean 100k users arrived in one day.
The rating is 4.63, which looks fine, but the ratio is off. 300k users produced only 143 ratings, about 0.05%. Extensions that grew through word of mouth usually sit at 0.3% to 1% or higher. Stands, for example, has 4M users and 159k ratings (Chrome Web Store, 11-06). Many users with few ratings usually means most came in through ads and then forgot about it.
Where users come from: right in the popups it's trying to block
The only direct evidence is that opening Reddit reply. But its own privacy policy fills in the rest. The policy says that on install it uploads "the hostnames of all tabs open at the time," plus "campaign attribution info from open Chrome Web Store tabs," for "understanding install sources and preventing fraud." It also collects canvas and audio fingerprints to "identify devices, restore install identity, and prevent fraud." A free extension needs to know which campaign each install came from and needs fraud prevention, so the most plausible reading is that it's buying installs on a per-install basis and reconciling with ad networks. That's an inference.
Look at those 61 sites. Pirated movie and cracked-game sites are exactly where popunder ads and fake download buttons are everywhere, and those slots are cheap (by industry rules of thumb, a few cents to a dollar or two per thousand impressions, an estimate, unverified). A user already annoyed by that site's popups gets offered a blocker "for this exact site" with the site's name listed, and conversion should be good. The site list works as both a selling point and the landing page for the ad creative.
Timing helped too. Chrome fully retired the old extension spec (MV2) in 2025, so the official uBlock Origin disappeared from Chrome, and Chrome 142 removed the experimental flag that could restore it (reported by Android Authority). Many Chrome users, especially those on piracy sites, were looking for "a blocker that still works on Chrome."
Other channels are small: its YouTube channel has 7 subscribers and two videos (2,500 and 682 views). The Ghost name led some people to think it was Ghostery, and the official FAQ addresses this with "we just like the ghost theme." It's not findable on X, TikTok or in the press.
Where the money comes from: no fee, monetizing "allowlisting" and "visibility"
It has no in-app purchases, no official pricing and no Pro tier. The money is in the terms of service:
software is supported through the Acceptable Ads program … We may receive a percentage of the revenue … Acceptable Ads is enabled by default
This is eyeo's (parent company of Adblock Plus) Acceptable Ads program: advertisers on the allowlist pay to have their ads let through, and eyeo shares part of that with blockers that integrate the allowlist. It's on by default, so nearly every user contributes a little revenue. The terms say so, but the actual share it receives isn't visible from outside.
The second source is data. The privacy policy says that after install it keeps reporting "root domains visited and visit counts," and this collection continues even with Acceptable Ads turned off. It stores this with device fingerprints and IP addresses for 6 months, the servers are in the Netherlands, and the terms are governed by German law. The policy doesn't say "sell," but selling browsing data is the other common revenue source for free blockers like this. This is unverified.
Whether the math works out shows in its behavior: the same playbook has already been used under at least three brands.
It's not one product, it's a system
Matching Chrome Web Store permission combinations exactly (<all_urls>, declarativeNetRequest, scripting, webNavigation, unlimitedStorage and so on, seven items in total), only two match its exact set:
| Add-ons | Launched | Users (11-06) | Score | Approach |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ad Block Wonder | 2025-11-10 | 300k | 203 | Targets downloads, streaming and torrent sites, calls itself "the successor to uBlock" |
| Ad Block Ninja | 2026-06-06 | 400k | 184 | Official site title "Light and Agile Ad-Blocking" |
| Ad Block Ghost | 2026-08-23 | 300k | 143 | Names 61 piracy sites, the most polished brand |
Together the three total about 1M users. They share a positioning, similar copy (Ghost's store title is also "Light and agile protection") and the same supported languages. Most likely one team rotating one codebase under different names. There's no evidence tying it to a specific developer entity. Ghost's store developer name just says "info" and doesn't identify the business.
The approach has two benefits: if one brand gets pulled from the store, the other two remain; and several names capture more search keywords.
The problem is that they aren't alone. In the Chrome Web Store, there are 50 extensions with "ad block" in the name that have passed 74k users, and 2026 that were listed after May 5,000 and have already passed 8 users: All-In-One Adblocker (300k), Ad Blocker Pro (300k), Ad Blocker Unlimited (200k), Ad Blocker Premium (100k), AdScrubber (500k users, only 4 ratings)… They all look the same: an independent .com domain, hundreds of thousands to a few million users, a few dozen ratings, free. Above them sit the established brands AdBlock (65M), Adblock Plus (40M) and AdGuard (17M).
If it were you
One-line verdict: the business works, but it's already crowded, and its most valuable part isn't in the extension but in the paid-acquisition channel relationships and the monetization partnerships. Not recommended to copy outright; worth learning the playbook.
Who it suits: teams already buying traffic, with popunder or native ad channels in hand and comfortable reconciling CPI; or someone who already has a blocker and wants to improve conversion.
Who it doesn't suit: indie developers who can write an extension but have never bought ads. The feature can be built over a weekend, but users won't come on their own. Anyone uneasy about data collection or gray traffic should stay away.
If you still want to do it, how:
- Don't build another "Ad Block Something." Take its method to a different pain point: pick a scenario where users are annoyed right now and traffic in that slot is cheap, match the product copy and landing page word for word to that scenario, and name specific sites the way it names 61 sites.
- Copy its install attribution: put campaign parameters on the store link, read them back on install, and know what each channel's install costs and what it returns.
- Don't count on being able to plug into Acceptable Ads easily; that requires a partnership with eyeo. Find out whether that deal is possible before you start.
How to get users: buy ads where the pain happens (the popup slots on pirate sites); on Reddit, ask for testers with the pitch "not replacing anyone, just a companion". Small volume, but it builds the first batch of ratings.
When the window closes: the window isn't a date, it's store policy. If the Chrome Web Store tightens review of extensions with "all sites access + browsing data reporting", or eyeo changes its revenue share, this whole batch of shells gets hit together.
What would mean I got it wrong: if Ghost, Ninja, and Wonder get pulled or lose users within a few months, this path is shorter-lived than it looks. The other way round: if the same team launches a fourth and fifth brand and each one reaches 300k, per-install payback is higher than I estimated, and this is worth more than a C grade.
Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report
- Competitors
Name Where Launched Scale How it differs from this one AdBlock / Adblock Plus(eyeo) Chrome 2009 65M / 40M users General full-web blocking, an established brand. Ghost only targets pirate-site contexts and relies on paid acquisition, and in return takes a revenue share from eyeo's Acceptable Ads. AdGuard / Ghostery / Stands Chrome 2010–2014 17M / 2M / 4M Has reputation and multi-platform products. Ghost has no reputation built up; it has only 143 reviews. uBlock Origin Lite / Brave's built-in blocker Open-source / big-company offerings 2022 / 2019 Big The first choice for technical users, but not built for beginners. Ghost targets the beginners who got annoyed by popups on pirate sites after uBO left Chrome. Ad Block Ninja Chrome 2026-06-06 400k users, 184 rating Almost identical (same permissions, positioning, copy). Ghost has a more polished brand and website, and names 61 sites. Ad Block Wonder Chrome 2025-11-10 300k users, 203 rating Almost identical. Wonder pitches itself as the "uBlock successor". Popup Blocker Pro / Popup Blocker (strict) Chrome 2015 / 2016 About 300k each Popups only, an older product. Ghost bundles popups, redirects, fake downloads, and cookie banners, and names pirate sites. - Where users come from
- Inferred Paid acquisition via popups / popunder ads on pirate sites: a user in a Reddit r/browsers thread wrote that clicking something sketchy on a pirate site served them an ad for "ghost popup blocker". The privacy policy says that at install it collects the hostnames of all open tabs and campaign attribution info from the Chrome Web Store tab, plus a device fingerprint for "anti-fraud".
- Confirmed Vertical landing page (names 61 pirate movie / game sites): the adblockghost.com homepage lists FitGirl, DODI, SteamRIP, HydraHD, Miruro and 61 sites in total.
- Verified Reddit self-post: 2026-09-08 dev posted "Testing a companion ad blocker focused on streaming/download mirrors (Ad Block Ghost)" on r/browsers
- Confirmed Own YouTube channel: @AdBlockGhostOG has 7 subscribers and 2 videos (2.5K / 682 views). Negligible scale.
- Verified Platform event: uBlock Origin exits Chrome (MV3): Chrome drops MV2025 in 2 and removes the restore flag in 142; sibling app Wonder markets itself directly as "successor to uBlock"
- Inferred Borrowing the Ghostery name: the website FAQ addresses the relationship with Ghostery directly, and Facebook Q&A threads confuse the two.
Ad Block Ghost - Light and agile protection (Chrome extension) research report
- Store page: chromewebstore.google.com/detail/ad-block-ghost-light-and/do…
- Website: adblockghost.com (the developer name is just "info", email [email protected], no business identity listed, no address)
- Research date: 2026-11-06
Bottom line
It didn't get here on product merit. This is an "ad blocker shell" aimed at users of pirated movie, anime, and cracked-game sites, most likely buying installs through popup / popunder ads on those same sites. The website names 61 sites, including FitGirl, DODI, SteamRIP, HydraHD, and Miruro. Money comes back two ways: the default-on eyeo Acceptable Ads revenue share, and domain browsing records collected after install, plus device fingerprinting. The same playbook has at least two siblings: Ad Block Ninja (400k users) and Ad Block Wonder (300k users). Combined, the three total roughly 1M users.
1. Data (our chromestore database, 2026-11-01 to 11-06)
| Date | users | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 11-01 | 200,000 | 131 |
| 11-02 | 300,000 | 132 |
| 11-04 | 300,000 | 139 |
| 11-06 | 300,000 | 143 |
- First published 2026-08-23, last updated 2026-10-08 (v2.1, MV3,4.29, MiB). Rating: 4.63.
- In the extension.vn snapshot it shows 100,000 users (date not verified). That means in 2.5 months since launch it grew from the 100k tier to the 300k tier.
- Rating count is badly out of proportion to user count: 300k users but only 143 ratings, about 0.05%. Organically grown extensions usually sit at 0.3% to 1% or higher. Stands, for example, has 4M users and 159k ratings. A ratio this low fits installs bought through ads that people don't really use.
- Permissions:
<all_urls>, activeTab, declarativeNetRequest, scripting, storage, unlimitedStorage, webNavigation. - No in-app purchases, no paid wording, and no pricing on the website (site_has_pricing = False in the database).
2. Competitors
Ad blockers are one of the most crowded tracks on Chrome. Going by our data (user counts shown as 2026-11-06), they fall into three groups.
A. Established mainstream players: AdBlock (65M, 2009, eyeo-affiliated), Adblock Plus (40M, 2009, eyeo), AdGuard (17M), Ghostery (2M), Stands (4M), uBlock Origin Lite. Brave's browser and Chrome's built-in blocking are also in this space.
B. "Ad Block + noun" shells that keep appearing, one after another, over the past 2026 years:
| Name | Launched | users | Score | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ad Block Ninja(WestHive,ninja-block.com) | 2026-06-06 | 400,000 | 184 | Sibling: same permissions as Ghost, website headline "Light and Agile Ad-Blocking". |
| Ad Block Wonder(wonderadblock.com) | 2025-11-10 | 300,000 | 203 | Sibling: identical permissions, focused on "download / streaming / torrent sites", claims to be the uBlock successor. |
| All-In-One Adblocker | 2026-06-12 | 300,000 | 134 | 11-06 went from 200k to 300k |
| Ad Blocker Pro(proadblocker.com) | 2026-08-14 | 300,000 | 67 | 11-06 went from 200k to 300k |
| Ad Blocker Unlimited | 2026-05-18 | 200,000 | 52 | |
| Ad Blocker Premium | 2026-09-21 | 100,000 | 17 | |
| AdScrubber | 2026-03-09 | 500,000 | 4 | 500k users with only 4 ratings |
| Ad Block Genius / Adblock Bear | 2025 / 2023 | 200,000 | 453 / 1,009 |
Searching the chromestore database for names containing "ad block" with ≥50k users returns 74 extensions. Of these, 8 launched after May 2026 and have already passed 5,000 users. What they share: a standalone .com domain, 100k to 500k users, only dozens to a couple hundred ratings, and no charge.
C. Specialists for popups: Popup Blocker Pro (300k, 2015), Popup Blocker (strict) (300k, 2016).
Matching the exact permission set across the whole database turns up only 3 extensions: Ghost, Ninja, and Wonder. Add in their positioning (pirate streaming and download sites), copy ("Light and agile"), and language lists, which are highly consistent, and I judge them to be the same team or the same codebase. This is an inference; I have no evidence identifying the developer entity.
3. Where users came from (growth tactics)
- Ads on pirate sites (strongest evidence, but only one user testimony): the 2026-09-08 developer posted "Testing a companion ad blocker focused specifically on streaming/download mirrors (Ad Block Ghost)" on r/browsers. A user replied: "not sure if its you, but if i click on somthing sketchy on a pirating website then it will send me an ad for ghost popup blocker". www.reddit.com/r/browsers/comments/1waic3d/. The quote came from a Brave Search snippet; the Reddit page itself 403.
- The privacy policy states they do ad attribution and anti-fraud: at install it uploads "the hostnames of all tabs open at that time", plus "campaign attribution info from open Chrome Web Store tabs", said to be for "understanding install sources and preventing fraud". It also collects canvas / audio fingerprints to "identify devices, restore install identity, and prevent fraud". Only products that buy installs per channel (CPI / CPA) and need reconciliation and fraud checks tend to do this. adblockghost.com/privacy.html
- The positioning itself is ad targeting: the website lists "61 familiar turf": 45 movie / anime sites (Movy, HydraHD, Miruro, animepahe, PrimeWire, etc.) and 16 game download / repack sites (FitGirl, DODI, SteamRIP, Online Fix, Elamigos, etc.). These are exactly where popunders and fake download buttons run wild. A user annoyed by ads on these sites will install an extension that promises to fix the popups on that specific site. adblockghost.com/
- Reddit self-promotion: the developer asked for testers on r/browsers, positioned as "not replacing uBO, a companion". It also shows up as a recommendation in sidebars on threads like r/Adblock and r/Ghostery. Small volume.
- Own YouTube channel: @AdBlockGhostOG has 7 subscribers and 2 videos (2.5K and 682 views). Possibly creative for ads, negligible scale.
- Riding on the Ghostery name: some people take it for Ghostery. The website FAQ says "We just like the ghost theme! We respect their product…". How much search traffic the name brings can't be confirmed.
- Not found: X (x-radar, no relevant mentions in 90 days), TikTok (no relevant videos found via TikHub), media coverage, Meta ad library (outside our tracked scope). On aggregator sites like chrome-stats, extension.vn, and myext it appears only as a "related extension".
Background push: Chrome fully disabled MV2 in 2025, and the genuine uBlock Origin disappeared from Chrome (Chrome 142 also removed the flag, see androidauthority). Lots of Chrome users, especially those on pirate sites, are looking for a blocker that still works on Chrome. Wonder's store copy says "the successor to uBlock" outright, and this batch of new shells is all chasing that demand.
4. Where the money comes from
- Acceptable Ads revenue share: the terms of service state "software is supported through the Acceptable Ads program … We may receive a percentage of the revenue … Acceptable Ads is enabled by default" (https://adblockghost.com/terms.html). This is eyeo's model: whitelisted advertisers pay, and eyeo passes a share to the blockers that integrate it. Being on by default means most users are contributing revenue.
- Data: after install it keeps reporting "root domains visited and visit counts", and keeps collecting even with Acceptable Ads turned off. It also reports device fingerprints, IP, and install attribution, retained for 6 months; servers are in the Netherlands and the terms are governed by German law. The policy doesn't say data is "sold", but selling clickstream / browsing data is a common way shells like this make money. This is not verified.
- A YouTube "removal guide" (Andrey Gvozd channel, 2026-09-30) calls it adware that changes your default search engine. That channel promotes Combo Cleaner and runs the same script on every new extension, so it's low credibility. The permissions don't include anything that changes search, so I'm treating it as noise.
Unit economics: popunder traffic on pirate sites is very cheap, with rough CPMs of a few cents to a dollar or two (unverified). Each install also brings later revenue share and data income, so "buy traffic, recoup, open a new name" works. Running three names in a row (Wonder → Ninja → Ghost) suggests the model does pay back.
5. Differentiation
- Product layer: the real difference is vertical positioning. It doesn't say "blocks all ads," it says "stops popups, redirects and fake download buttons on pirated movie, anime and cracked-game sites," naming the sites one by one on the landing page. YouTube blocking is off by default so anti-adblock scripts don't break playback. It also has a polished ghost brand and interactive demo pages, so it looks more legitimate than Ninja or Wonder.
- Why it ran: positioning explains only half. Vertical targeting lets ads and landing pages hit people who are being bothered by popups on those exact sites right now, so conversion is high. But the user base mostly comes from paid acquisition. The 0.05% rating share also points to passive installs, not word of mouth. The underlying capability (declarativeNetRequest plus generic filter rules) is no different from dozens of others.
6. How many people know about it
Almost nobody knows about it yet. No press coverage, no one on X, no TikTok content, and revenue has never been disclosed. All I could find was a Reddit self-promo post (around 13 comments), a YouTube channel with 7 subscribers, and aggregator listings. The model of "blocker skin + Acceptable Ads + pirate-site traffic" isn't new in the industry either. The Chrome Web Store has a dozen "Ad Block X" clones, so the category is already crowded.
7. Takeaways
- Pick a scenario where users have a strong pain point right now and traffic is cheap, like popups on pirate sites, and make the product copy and landing page match that scenario word for word (list the site names).
- Read utm / campaign parameters from the Chrome Web Store page at install for attribution, use device fingerprinting to prevent fraud, and reconcile by CPI.
- One codebase under several brands (Wonder / Ninja / Ghost) spreads out the risk of store takedowns and holds multiple keywords at once.
- Free to install, monetized through Acceptable Ads revenue share. Users never see a paywall inside the extension, so retention isn't hurt.
8. What's uncertain
- Whether it's the same entity as Ninja or Wonder: there's only circumstantial evidence (permissions, copy, positioning, language lists). No developer entity or whois evidence.
- The scale and channels of paid ads on pirate sites (which popunder network, such as PropellerAds or Adsterra): only one user's testimony.
- Whether it's really connected to eyeo's revenue share and how big the share is: only its own terms say so.
- Whether it sells domain visit data: the policy doesn't say, unverified.
- 11-01 to 11-02 going from 200k to 300k is just a change in the scale of the chart. It doesn't mean 100k new users in one day.
Sources
- chromestore database: item / item_snap / related / site tables, 2026-11-01 to 11-06
- adblockghost.com/, adblockghost.com/privacy.html, adblockghost.com/terms.html (read 2026-11-06)
- www.reddit.com/r/browsers/comments/1waic3d/ (2026-09-08, via Brave search snippet)
- www.youtube.com/@AdBlockGhostOG ;www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlofC8qEPLU
- ninja-block.com, wonderadblock.com (official site titles and copy)
- www.androidauthority.com/chrome-142-ublock-origin-workaround… (uBO's end on Chrome)
- x-radar (90 days, nothing relevant), TikHub search (nothing relevant), metaads library (no relevant advertisers)