Consumers spent more money in mobile apps than games in 2025, driven by AI app adoption.

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Mobile app spending surpassed gaming revenue globally for the first time in 2025, reaching $85 billion (21% YoY growth). Generative AI apps drove this shift, with revenue tripling to $5 billion and downloads doubling to 3.8 billion. ChatGPT alone generated $3.4 billion in in-app purchases. Users spent 48 billion hours in AI apps (3.6x increase), with session volume exceeding one trillion. Over 110 million U.S. users accessed AI assistants exclusively on mobile. Big tech companies like Google and Microsoft expanded their market share from 14% to 30%, while OpenAI and DeepSeek captured nearly 50% of global downloads.

Consumers spent more on mobile apps than games in 2025, driven by AI app adoption