Q2 2025 Digital Market Index: Mobile Consumers Now Spend More on Apps Than Games

The digital economy continued its robust growth in Q2 2025, with both mobile and advertising sectors maintaining strong momentum. According to Sensor Tower’s latest Digital Market Index report, global in-app purchase (IAP) revenue across iOS and Google Play climbed 11.5% year-over-year to a record-high of nearly $41 billion. Concurrently, digital ad spend in the United States across mobile, desktop, and OTT platforms soared to $34.2 billion—a 12% increase year-over-year (YoY)—and generated a record 4.2 trillion impressions. For brands and advertisers, this dynamic market—where consumer habits and strategies are rapidly evolving—presents exciting new opportunities to innovate and capture growth.

Apps Overtake Games in IAP Revenue for the First Time in Q2

A long-anticipated shift in the mobile economy has finally occurred: for the first time, in Q2 2025, consumer spending on non-gaming apps surpassed that of mobile games. This is a dramatic reversal from a decade ago, when games out-earned apps by a nearly 6-to-1 margin.

The monetization landscape for non-games has been completely transformed over the past decade. This growth has been driven by the rise of the subscription model, innovative strategies from apps like TikTok, and a broader consumer comfort with making mobile purchases. Now, artificial intelligence is providing the latest boost.

Global IAP spend in non-gaming apps grew a strong 24% YoY to reach a record-high $21.1 billion in Q2 2025. In contrast, mobile game spending has remained stable at approximately $20 billion per quarter. While roughly flat globally, mobile games still show pockets of strong regional growth: IAP revenue climbed 8.5% YoY in Europe and 6.2% in Latin America, offsetting slight declines in Asia and North America.

ChatGPT Continues to Break Records

ChatGPT’s unprecedented rise continued in Q2 2025, as it recently became the fastest app to reach 1 billion global downloads (and the fastest non-pre-installed app to hit 500 million monthly active users). With this surge in attention, ChatGPT has also been monetizing effectively, ranking #4 among apps by IAP revenue in Q2 2025. And even with the Generative AI space getting more competitive on mobile including recent launches from Meta (Meta AI) and X (Grok), ChatGPT accounted for more than two-thirds of all IAP revenue from Generative AI apps in Q2 2025.

Side note: Understanding how consumers are engaging with LLMs like ChatGPT is now pivotal to a successful digital strategy. Early data is available for Sensor Tower's AI Chatbot Insights — learn more here.

TikTok remained the leader on mobile, ranking first in IAP revenue and second in downloads for the quarter. Its nearly $1.7 billion in IAP revenue in Q2 2025 marked its second-best quarter to date and was more than double the revenue of any other app. CapCut, the video editing app from TikTok publisher ByteDance, also ranked among the top 10 apps by IAP revenue in the quarter.

The download charts also tell a story of familiar names fighting for the top spot. ChatGPT passed TikTok to become the #1 app by downloads in Q2 2025, thanks to its first-ever major digital ad campaign, which promoted free ChatGPT Plus to college students. Meanwhile, Meta continued to dominate the rankings, placing three apps in the #3-5 slots and its microblogging app, Threads, at #10.

The United States Digital Advertising Market Grows 12% Year-over-Year

The United States digital ad market showed no signs of slowing down in Q2 2025. Ad spend across mobile, desktop, and OTT platforms hit $34 billion, and impressions reached a record-high 4.17 trillion. Both metrics achieved 12% YoY growth, revealing a robust market that, while just shy of a typical Q4 holiday peak, is continuing its upward trajectory. It’s also important to note that our US advertising data now includes in-app advertising, providing a more complete picture of the market.

While the US market is strong, other regions are seeing even faster growth. The top markets by digital ad spend growth were South Korea (+21% YoY), Brazil (+18%), and Mexico (+16%). And be sure to check out India, the latest available market.

Please note that the included ad channels vary by market. Keep an eye out for new ad channels becoming available in your markets of interest – several new ad channels have been recently released, including NAVER, TikTok, and YouTube in South Korea and LINE in Japan. These are available for Sensor Tower customers here or you can request a demo here.

Want More Insights on the Digital Economy? Read the Full Report

Read the full Q2 2025 Digital Market Index report for deeper insights into the market leaders in mobile and digital advertising. The interactive report spans 24 markets and covers:

• Top Markets: Europe and Latin America are key growth regions, with IAP revenue soaring more than 20% YoY

• Top Categories: AI fuels more than 50% YoY growth in Software app revenue, while Short Drama apps continue their rapid ascent

• Top Apps: ChatGPT became the fastest app ever to reach one billion downloads globally, and it ranked among the top five apps in both downloads and IAP revenue in Q2

• Top Games: The gaming market is dominated by older titles, with Asia and Europe-based developers leading breakout growth

• Digital Advertising: Rapid growth in ad channels like OTT and Reddit helped boost US digital advertising spend 12% YoY

• Retail Media: US retail media ad impressions climbed 29% YoY to approach 65 billion across top retailers like Walmart and Chewy