You're passing on $50k-100k per month of ad revenue from just basic banner ads... at least based on how RPMs were a few years ago. I respect that, definitely not the decision I'd make.
More realistically, if he decided to do this right, and sell direct ads using something like Kevel, with "promoted" game slots or something on the homepage and search, he could do $10-$20CPM direct since it's a large and well known site with high purchase intent.
Let's say a conservative 4 impressions per page and 3 pages per session.
(12 imps per session * 6m sessions)/1000 * $10CPM is $720k / mo
This is a _very_ achievable number, quickly, for a site that is this close to purchase intent.
I don't understand. Even putting a single adsense ad at a $1 CPM would net him close to $20k/mo. This might be one of the least monetized sites I've seen at this scale.
Respect.
Assuming $0.50 net CPM on one AdSense unit per page view, that would be $70k monthly/$840k yearly revenue. And since operating cost is $100, that's all profit. I'm no AdSense expert but I believe this would be super conservative, maybe an expert could chime in with higher realistic numbers. Even if you don't like advertising there are other ways you could earn money with a site like SteamDB.
Why do you think google analytics is more right than cloudflare? Adblock can block GA, but it can't block cloudflare
edit: err, it's a genuine question, from someone that doesn't work in/with advertising, and had a .info domain within the first month they were offered, in 2001. Here's a rephrasing: Do ad networks, or customers of those networks, treat TLDs differently?
It's funny I wonder about the influence of ads too like you by using ad block experience a better internet (no influence on behavior).
There's a hijacking thing too of intent, at which point I modify websites to hide these above the fold attention grabbers.
My kindle forces you to read an ad everytime you turn it on. I know you could root it, lost money on device, etc...
SteamDB looks pretty amazing and sleek without ads. Putting ads would only degrade the user experience and force people to install adblockers or use adblocking browsers like Brave. Kudos to xPaw for keeping his site ad-free for all of us to enjoy.