Generative artificial intelligence apps drove mobile download growth during 2025, and for the first time, non-game apps surpassed game apps in total revenue derived from in-app purchases, according to an in-depth report by Sensor Tower.
Global in-app revenue for non-game apps increased by 21% year over year to $85.6B, while such purchases for mobile games inched up 1% to $81.8B. The report, “State of Mobile 2026,” used data from Apple’s (AAPL) App Store and Google’s (GOOG)(GOOGL) Play Store. It did not include data from third-party purchases or revenue from advertisements.
OpenAI’s (OPENAI) ChatGPT made significant gains in 2025. Its downloads increased by 148% year over year. In-app purchases (IAP) for ChatGPT surged to $3.4B in revenue, making it the third highest-grossing app in 2025. It only trailed ByteDance’s (BDNCE) TikTok and Google One, a cloud storage service, in IAP revenue.
“This momentum reflects a new phase in the AI race,” the report said. “Big tech companies such as Google, Microsoft (MSFT), and X are investing heavily in their AI Assistants, expanding use cases and rolling out new features in an effort to challenge the market leader, ChatGPT.”
AI assistants led the way in the Gen-AI genre with the most downloads. This was led by ChatGPT, while Google’s Gemini and DeepSeek (DEEPSEEK) ranked second and third, respectively. xAI’s (X.AI) Grok was sixth, while Meta AI (META) and Microsoft Copilot rounded out the top 10.
“In 2025, the top AI publishers, OpenAI and DeepSeek, accounted for nearly 50% of global downloads, up from just 21% in 2023,” the report said. “Big tech publishers have also gained share over this period, rising from 14% in 2023 to nearly 30% in 2025. As a result, many early competitors have been crowded out, leaving roughly one-quarter of downloads for the remaining apps among the top 25 by downloads.”
Image and video generation features helped propel the success of the top performers among AI apps, such as OpenAI’s GPT-4o and Google’s nano-banana model.
Mobile game downloads slide in 2025
Downloads of mobile gaming apps declined for the third straight year, with users downloading 50.4B gaming apps in 2025 compared to 54.3B downloads in 2024 and 57.1B in 2023. Despite the download dip, IAP revenue increased to $81.75B in 2025 from $80.7B in 2024.
The games that generated the most IAP revenue globally included Last War: Survival, Whiteout Survival, Royal Match and MONOPOLY GO!
Meanwhile, Roblox (RBLX) dominated web visits in 2025, capturing 74% of all game publisher web visits.
China’s Tencent Holdings (TCEHY) ranked No. 1 among mobile game publishers by IAP revenue in 2025 at $7.5B. Scopely and Century Games ranked No. 2 and No. 3 with just over $3B, while Microsoft ranked No. 4 with $3B.
Finance app usage reflects consumer attitude
Among the finance genre, digital wallet and payment apps, such as PhonePe and PayPal (PYPL), along with cryptocurrency apps, such as Binance (BNB-USD), were among the top downloads in 2025.
Downloads for lending and personal finance apps also increased in the U.S. market.
“A modest dip in consumer sentiment in H1 2025 coincided with increased demand for Buy Now, Pay Later; Personal Finance Budgeting & Planning; and Payday Loan apps in the US,” the report said.
The top five finance apps downloaded worldwide in 2025 included, in order, PhonePe, PayPal, Navi, Paytm and Google Pay.
Chinese companies dominate retail app downloads
China-based shopping apps dominated the most downloaded retail app category in 2025. Temu (PDD) ranked No. 1, followed by Shein, Amazon Shopping (AMZN), Meesho, Shopee (SE) and Alibaba (BABA). However, Amazon was still used the most among these apps.
“While Temu dominated downloads in 2025, Amazon remained the global leader in usage, averaging 685 million MAUs in Q4 2025,” the report said. “Despite this lead, Temu is rapidly narrowing the gap; it surpassed 530 million MAUs following a massive 48% YoY surge in active users.”
Among the food and drink category, McDonald’s (MCD) was the most downloaded, followed by the food delivery service Blinkit and KFC (YUM). Meanwhile, Uber Eats’ (UBER) diversified ad campaign allowed it to take market share from DoorDash (DASH).
Uber was also the most downloaded app among the travel app segment, followed by Google Maps and Waze.
Short dramas captivate video streaming
The number of video streaming app downloads increased by 39% in 2025, along with an 18% gain in total revenue.
“This resurgence is primarily fueled by the ‘short drama’ phenomenon,” the report said. “These snackable-content platforms have dominated the rankings of the fastest-growing apps, led by Kuku TV, ReelShort, and DramaBox.”
“While Asia remains the largest market by volume, contributing approximately 54% of global short drama time spent in 2025, Latin America is emerging as the fastest-growing region for engagement,” the report added. “In Latin America, short dramas accounted for nearly 16% of total video entertainment time in Q4 2025.”
However, in terms of revenue produced, the more traditional streaming services won. Disney+ (DIS) ranked No. 1, followed by HBO Max (WBD), WeTV, Peacock TV (CMCSA), Paramount (PSKY) and Amazon Prime Video (AMZN).
Social media app leaders
In terms of global revenue, TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat (SNAP) topped the leaderboard. These were followed by Telegram, Kwai, X, Discord, LINE, BIGO LIVE and Meta’s Instagram.
“Short-form video usage increased again across leading social apps in 2025,” the report said. “While some major platforms, including TikTok, ended the year with a decline in short video’s share of time spent, Meta’s Instagram and Facebook more than offset this trend. Reels now accounts for a substantial share of engagement—46% of time spent on Instagram and 29% on Facebook.”
Mobile app usage continues to tick up
The amount of time people peered at their smartphones and the amount of dollars spent on IAP increased in 2025.
Total IAP across iOS and Google Play climbed 10.6% to $167B. The average user spent 3.6 hours per day on mobile apps, which was a year-over-year increase of 1.1%. Consumers are also using more apps, with the average user utilizing 34 per month, or about two more apps than they did in 2024.