There have been multiple reports highlighting a significant spike in direct traffic for customers, as reflected in BigQuery datasets. Upon thorough analysis, it was determined that this increase stemmed from upstream misattribution rather than any tracking issues.

With the latest update (September 25, 2024), a big issue has been resolved — resulting in better data accuracy in GA4.

What was fixed:

An issue that caused over-attribution of sessions to Direct, either when enabling enhanced user ID mode with automatic user data collection, or starting in late June to mid July for customers already using the feature before that date.

If you noticed unusual spikes in direct traffic around that period, your data should now be more accurately attributed across channels in both GA4 and BigQuery.