Generative AI tips global mobile spending: non-game apps beat games in 2025
Sensor Tower’s 2026 State of Mobile report shows consumers spent about $85 billion on mobile apps in 2025, a 21% increase from 2024. For the first time globally, spending on non-game apps exceeded spending on games. Generative AI was the primary growth driver: in-app purchase revenue for AI apps reached $5 billion and AI app downloads doubled year-over-year to roughly 3.8 billion. OpenAI’s ChatGPT led AI app spending — users spent an estimated $2.48 billion in the ChatGPT mobile app in 2025 (up 408% YoY), and overall time spent in generative AI apps surged (consumers logged ~48 billion hours). OpenAI and DeepSeek accounted for about 50% of AI app downloads, and top AI publishers’ market share rose from 14% to nearly 30%. Big tech (Google, Microsoft, X) accelerated feature investment in AI assistants, improving capabilities like image/video generation and coding assistance. Sensor Tower also noted growth in social media and streaming productivity apps, rising session volumes in AI apps (existing users increasing engagement faster than new-user acquisition), and a significant increase in mobile-only AI assistant users in the U.S. (110 million, up from 13 million in 2024).
Bullish
The shift of consumer spend toward generative AI and non-game mobile apps is bullish for crypto markets tied to AI, mobile infrastructure, and tokenized app ecosystems. Key reasons: 1) Strong revenue growth ($85B total app spend; $5B AI in-app purchases) signals expanding monetization opportunities for apps integrating crypto payments, token rewards, or on-chain identity — creating new use cases and demand for related tokens. 2) High user engagement (3.8B downloads, ~48B hours) and rapid spending growth in leading AI apps like ChatGPT validate product-market fit and increase developer and investor appetite to build crypto-native features. 3) Market concentration (OpenAI/DeepSeek ~50% downloads; top publishers’ share rising) can accelerate platform-level partnerships and token integrations, benefiting protocol tokens used for payments, staking, or utility inside AI ecosystems. Short-term impact: speculative buys for tokens tied to mobile/web3/AI projects may drive price spikes as traders chase thematic opportunities. Increased trading volume and volatility are likely around partnership announcements, SDK releases, or AI-app token launches. Long-term impact: sustained user engagement and monetization support fundamental value for projects that successfully integrate crypto payments, NFTs, or utility tokens into mass-market AI apps. However, risks include regulatory scrutiny, centralized platform capture, and competition from big tech which could limit decentralised alternatives. Overall, the news improves the growth narrative for crypto projects that enable or monetize AI-driven mobile experiences, making the near- to mid-term outlook constructive for related assets.