Global app spending tops mobile games for first time as AI assistants surge
Global consumer spending on mobile apps reached a new high in 2025, and a major milestone came with it: spending on non-gaming apps exceeded spending on mobile games worldwide for the first time across a full year, driven largely by rapid growth in generative AI assistants.
Sensor Tower’s State of Mobile 2026 report estimates that global in-app purchase (IAP) revenue reached $167 billion in 2025, up 10.6% year over year (YoY). The same report describes a mature mobile market where growth is increasingly tied to monetization and new premium experiences across categories.
The headline shift came from the split between apps and games. Sensor Tower’s figures show non-game apps generated $85.5 billion in consumer spending in 2025, up 21% YoY, while mobile games generated $81.8 billion, up 1% YoY. This crossover has occurred in individual markets before, including the United States, but 2025 marked the first time the pattern held globally across a full 12 months.
Generative AI was a key driver of that non-game growth. In-app purchases in the AI category exceeded $5 billion in 2025, more than tripling from 2024, and ranked as the largest contributor among non-games by this measure. Sensor Tower’s release also highlights that social media and streaming were among the biggest non-game revenue categories, following AI.
One app stood out: ChatGPT generated $3.4 billion in global in-app purchase revenue in 2025. TechCrunch notes that demand for AI assistants helped lift the category, with the top downloaded apps in the AI segment dominated by assistants rather than niche tools.
The report also points to a sharp rise in usage. Consumers spent 48 billion hours in generative AI apps in 2025, 3.6x the time spent in 2024 and 10x the time spent in 2023. Sensor Tower also tracked session volume, defined as how often users open and engage with an app, exceeding 1 trillion in 2025, with engagement growing faster than downloads.
Across the entire mobile ecosystem, time spent continued to rise. Sensor Tower estimates consumers spent 5.3 trillion hours across iOS and Google Play apps in 2025, up 3.8% YoY, which translates to roughly 3.6 hours per day per mobile user. Total downloads also edged up 0.8% YoY to nearly 150 billion.
The State of Mobile 2026 report frames 2025 as a year where mobile shifted further into a “monetization-first” phase, with generative AI emerging as a key growth engine across spending and engagement.
