Email open rates count a pixel load as a read — but Apple MPP fires that pixel automatically. The metric looks healthy, but it reflects machine activity more than human attention. Engagement scores built on opens inflate apparent interest and hide which contacts have gone cold.
Campaigns are optimized against a metric that no longer reflects audience behavior, wasting send volume and suppression decisions.
The email open rate becomes unreliable as a signal of human attention or genuine interest.
Open rate is rising while click-to-open rate and revenue per email send are declining simultaneously. When this divergence pattern holds across two or more send cycles, the open denominator has grown from automated pre-fetching — not from genuine reader engagement.