Overview
- Consumers spent $85.6 billion on non-gaming apps versus $81.8 billion on games out of $167 billion total in-app purchases, the first time non-games led globally.
- AI assistant apps drove the gains, with downloads doubling to 3.8 billion, time in generative AI apps reaching 48 billion hours, and ChatGPT generating over $3 billion in purchases.
- Despite a roughly 7% decline in downloads, mobile game in-app purchases rose about 1% to $81.8 billion in what Sensor Tower calls a “year of divergence.”
- Revenue remained highly concentrated as the top 1% of game publishers captured about 92.5% of IAP, while AppsFlyer estimates gaming user‑acquisition spend climbed to roughly $25 billion.
- Users logged 5.3 trillion hours in apps in 2025, with social media nearing 2.5 trillion hours and short‑form drama and AI assistants ranking among the fastest‑growing categories.