In-app purchase revenue across the iOS App Store and Google Play reached $167 billion in 2025, up 10.6% year over year, while downloads rose 0.8% to 149 billion, per Sensor Tower’s State of Mobile 2026. Money grew thirteen times faster than installs. This post covers 2025 downloads, revenue, category growth, generative AI and app user demographics, with each figure labelled by what it measures.
Mobile App Market Growth Statistics 2026
How Big Is The Mobile App Market In 2026?
Every headline metric Sensor Tower tracks hit a record in 2025. The rates behind them moved at very different speeds.
Downloads count once per Apple or Google account. Revenue is gross, before the store cut, and excludes advertising.
| Metric (2025) | Figure | YoY change |
|---|---|---|
| New app downloads | 149 billion | +0.8% |
| In-app purchase revenue | $167 billion | +10.6% |
| Total hours spent | 5.3 trillion | +3.8% |
| Average time spent per user | 3.6 hours per day | +1.1% |
| Apps used per user | 34 per month | +5.4% |
Source: Sensor Tower, State of Mobile 2026, calendar year 2025. Downloads and revenue cover iOS and Google Play. Hours cover iOS and Android. Per-user metrics cover 80 markets and exclude China.
Sensor Tower puts the 2025 run rate at 284,000 app downloads and $318,000 of in-app spending per minute.
Did Apps Or Games Earn More In 2025?
Applications out-earned games on in-app purchases for the first time in Sensor Tower’s tracking history. Applications took $85.6 billion, up 21% and 2.8 times the total from five years earlier.
Games reached $81.8 billion, up 1.3%, a third straight year of revenue growth even as game downloads fell. See the fuller mobile gaming picture and how it lines up against console spending.
| Segment | 2025 IAP revenue | YoY change |
|---|---|---|
| Applications | $85.6 billion | +21% |
| Games | $81.8 billion | +1.3% |
Source: Sensor Tower, State of Mobile 2026, calendar year 2025, iOS App Store and Google Play, gross revenue
Where The Revenue Concentrates
The top 1% of publishers captured 92% of in-app purchase revenue and 81% of downloads in 2025. That worked out to $154 billion for the top 1% against $13.1 billion for the remaining 99% of publishers with non-zero revenue tracked by Sensor Tower.
The smaller share is climbing. Publishers outside the top 1% held 7.8% of in-app purchase revenue in 2025, against 5.3% in 2019.
Mobile App Market Growth Statistics 2026 By Category
Video streaming led download growth in 2025 at 39%, driven by short drama. Short drama downloads hit 2.3 billion, and the format took more than 10% of total video entertainment time in Q4 2025, against under 1% in Q1 2024. Subscription-side numbers appear in this video streaming market breakdown.
Finance downloads passed 8 billion for the first time. Credit and Lending apps grew 18% while Investing and Financial Management apps fell 15%, including a near-30% drop in Cryptocurrency apps.
| Category | 2025 download growth |
|---|---|
| Video Streaming | +39% |
| Food & Drink | +13% |
| Finance | +6% |
| Travel | +3% |
Source: Sensor Tower, State of Mobile 2026, worldwide downloads, calendar year 2025 versus 2024
Retail moved the other way. Downloads declined and time spent grew 1%, against 10% in each of the two prior years, which Sensor Tower ties to slowing expansion from Temu and SHEIN. Purchase-side context sits in these ecommerce business statistics.
On revenue, Social Media was the top genre in 2025 at $15 billion, up 16%. Social Media and Social Messaging apps together took more than 60% of all mobile time spent. Health and Wellness reached $4.5 billion, up 13%.
Generative AI In The 2026 Mobile App Market Growth Statistics
Generative AI app downloads doubled to 3.8 billion in 2025 and in-app purchase revenue passed $5 billion. Time spent hit 48 billion hours and sessions cleared one trillion.
ChatGPT booked $3.4 billion in in-app purchase revenue, ranking third-highest-grossing app of 2025 behind TikTok and Google One. Eighteen apps passed $1 billion in annual in-app purchase revenue, split evenly between games and non-games.
| Generative AI metric | 2025 figure |
|---|---|
| Downloads | 3.8 billion |
| In-app purchase revenue | More than $5 billion |
| Time spent | 48 billion hours |
| Sessions | More than one trillion |
Source: Sensor Tower, State of Mobile 2026, calendar year 2025, iOS App Store and Google Play
OpenAI and DeepSeek took close to 50% of generative AI app downloads in 2025, against 21% in 2023. Big tech publishers moved from 14% to nearly 30%. Wider adoption figures sit in this generative AI market analysis.
Mobile App User Demographics In 2026
Sensor Tower’s Audience Insights panel covers Android users in the United States. The Q4 2025 read shows one app on top for both genders and a sharp split lower down.
YouTube ranked first by audience share for men and women. Discord, ChatGPT and Reddit made the top 10 for men only. Pinterest, TikTok and Venmo made it for women only.
| Rank | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | YouTube | YouTube |
| 2 | ||
| 3 | Spotify | Spotify |
| 4 | Amazon | Amazon |
| 5 | ||
| 6 | ||
| 7 | Discord | Messenger |
| 8 | Messenger | |
| 9 | ChatGPT | TikTok |
| 10 | Venmo |
Source: Sensor Tower Audience Insights, top apps by share of audience using the app, Android users in the United States, Q4 2025. Gender is represented as men and women only.
By age, YouTube topped all five brackets from 18-24 through 55+. Discord ranked high among 18-24s, while ChatGPT placed in the top 10 for 35-44 and 45-54.
Category skews run the same way. Jobs and Education, Photo and Video, Generative AI and Social Media apps draw younger users; Travel, Sports and Shopping draw older ones. Books and Comics, Health and Wellness and Shopping run more female. Platform-level behaviour sits in these social media business statistics.
Mobile App Market Growth Statistics 2026 By Country
India led downloads in 2025, followed by the United States and Brazil. India and Pakistan were the only two markets in the top 10 to post positive year-over-year download growth.
The United States remained the largest market by revenue, with consumers spending nearly $60 billion in 2025, and time spent there rose 4%.
| Rank | Market | Rank | Market |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | India | 6 | Mexico |
| 2 | United States | 7 | Russia |
| 3 | Brazil | 8 | Pakistan |
| 4 | Indonesia | 9 | Turkey |
| 5 | China Mainland | 10 | Philippines |
Source: Sensor Tower, State of Mobile 2026, top mobile markets by downloads, calendar year 2025. China Mainland metrics are iOS only.
Nearly four in five downloads and dollars spent happened outside the country where the app was built. India, Singapore, Turkey and Saudi Arabia are raising the revenue share held by local publishers.
Store-Level Mobile App Market Growth Statistics 2026
Apple App Store Ecosystem
Apple reported over $1.4 trillion in developer billings and sales facilitated by the App Store ecosystem in 2025, from a study by economists at Analysis Group. Developers paid no commission on more than 90% of it.
This counts commerce passing through apps, not store revenue, so it does not compare with Sensor Tower’s $167 billion in-app purchase figure.
The App Store averaged over 850 million weekly users across 175 countries and regions. More than 40 of the top 100 apps carried consumer-facing AI features, and those apps saw four times more billings growth.
Source: Apple, Analysis Group study of the global App Store ecosystem, calendar year 2025
Google Play Enforcement
Google Play Protect scanned over 350 billion Android apps daily in 2025, and apps ran more than 20 billion Play Integrity API checks a day.
| Action (2025) | Volume |
|---|---|
| Policy-violating apps prevented from publishing | 1.75 million |
| Bad developer accounts banned | 80,000+ |
| Apps stopped from excessive access to sensitive data | 255,000+ |
| Spam ratings and reviews blocked | 160 million |
| Malicious apps found outside Google Play | 27 million+ |
Source: Google, Keeping Google Play and Android app ecosystems safe in 2025, published February 19, 2026
FAQs
How big is the mobile app market in 2026?
In-app purchase revenue reached $167 billion across iOS and Google Play in 2025, up 10.6%, on 149 billion downloads and 5.3 trillion hours spent, per Sensor Tower’s State of Mobile 2026.
Did apps out-earn games in 2025?
Yes. Applications took $85.6 billion in in-app purchase revenue against $81.8 billion for games, the first time non-game apps led in Sensor Tower’s tracking. Applications grew 21%, games 1.3%.
Which app earned the most in-app purchase revenue in 2025?
ChatGPT booked $3.4 billion, ranking third-highest-grossing app of 2025 behind TikTok and Google One. Generative AI apps overall passed $5 billion and 3.8 billion downloads.
Is Reddit among the most used apps in the United States?
Reddit ranked tenth by audience share among men on Android in the United States in Q4 2025, per Sensor Tower Audience Insights. Reddit did not appear in the women’s top 10.
How much time do people spend in mobile apps?
An average 3.6 hours per day per user in 2025, up 1.1%, across 80 markets excluding China. Users opened 34 apps per month and 10 unique apps per day.
Sources
https://sensortower.com/blog/state-of-mobile-2026
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/06/app-store-ecosystem-reaches-1-point-4-trillion-usd-as-developers-thrive-globally/
https://blog.google/security/keeping-google-play-android-app-ecosystem-safe-2025/
With many years of professional experience within transnational corporations in different industries, Richard Jaimes has had the opportunity to lead people and organizations, investigate future topics, create strategies and innovations, consult senior management and translate insights into business advantages. Richard is also a long time senior consultant with Quantumrun Foresight.
