SAN FRANCISCO, January 23, 2026, 00:05 PST
- According to Sensor Tower, consumer spending on non-game mobile apps overtook games for the first time in 2025
- Worldwide spending on in-app purchases and paid apps across iOS and Google Play hit roughly $167 billion, marking an increase of around 10%
- Generative AI apps raked in over $5 billion in in-app revenue, while downloads surged to 3.8 billion, doubling from before.
In 2025, for the first time globally, consumers shelled out more for non-game mobile apps than for games, Sensor Tower’s annual State of Mobile 2026 report reveals. The firm links this shift to the rise of paid generative AI services—apps that generate text, images, or video. Sensortower
For years, games have led mobile spending, influencing everything from ad strategies to store policies at Apple and Google. This overlap signals a rapidly maturing market increasingly focused on subscriptions and in-app purchases.
App developers are seeing growth shift toward social, streaming, productivity—and now AI assistants. For Apple and Alphabet’s Google, who take a cut from numerous app-store sales, it’s another clear sign that the biggest bucks aren’t just coming from gaming anymore.
Spending on in-app purchases (IAP) and paid apps across iOS and Google Play hit $167 billion in 2025, up 10.6% from the previous year, according to Jonathan Briskman, director of Sensor Tower Market Insights. “The mobile market is mature but far from stagnant,” he noted. Downloads climbed to almost 150 billion, with users clocking 5.3 trillion hours on their devices. Sensortower
Sensor Tower CEO and co-founder Oliver Yeh pointed out that the trend has been brewing as entertainment, lifestyle, and productivity apps unlocked new ways to sell premium features. “This set the stage for Gen AI apps, which didn’t just attract millions of users but also saw hefty revenue jumps,” Yeh explained. The company highlighted strong download spikes in short-form drama and AI apps. Prnewswire
Downloads of generative AI apps doubled to 3.8 billion in 2025, according to Sensor Tower, with in-app purchase revenue in the sector nearly tripling to over $5 billion. Last year, users clocked 48 billion hours in these apps and racked up more than a trillion sessions.
AI assistants drove much of that surge. According to Sensor Tower, the top 10 generative AI apps by downloads were dominated by assistants like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and DeepSeek. ChatGPT alone pulled in $3.4 billion in in-app purchase revenue, TechCrunch reported. Techcrunch
Sensor Tower highlighted moves by major tech firms stepping up their game. It noted investments from Google, Microsoft, and X as they boost assistant capabilities in a race to close the gap with ChatGPT.
According to Sensor Tower data shared by Seeking Alpha, non-game apps pulled in $85.6 billion in in-app purchase revenue in 2025, outpacing games, which stood at $81.8 billion. Seekingalpha
Gaming didn’t crash—it just cooled down. Sensor Tower reports game IAP revenue hit roughly $82 billion, growing a modest 1.3% year over year. Publishers are shifting gears, zeroing in on retention and squeezing more from existing players rather than chasing installs. User acquisition, or UA, is the budget spent to bring in new players, while “live ops” covers ongoing updates and in-game events designed to keep revenue flowing.
The United States kept its lead as the top market by revenue, with consumers shelling out nearly $60 billion in 2025, Sensor Tower reported. In Western Europe, the UK, Germany, and France stood out as major growth engines. Time spent in the U.S. climbed 4% following a drop in 2024 that Sensor Tower attributed to digital fatigue.
Still, the split can shift fast. App spending fluctuates with subscription fees and a few blockbuster launches, while Sensor Tower’s numbers rely on estimates that may change as data gets updated.
Sensor Tower predicts the battle for user attention will remain fierce through 2026, with developers introducing new methods to monetize premium features while users divide their focus among social, streaming, and AI platforms.
