Q3 2024 Digital Market Index: Consumer Spend on Mobile Raced Past $100 Billion in Record Time in 2024

Q3 2024 marked new record highs across the digital economy, from digital advertising to consumer spend on mobile devices. And even with consistently strong performance over the past few years, growth actually accelerated for several key metrics this quarter. Sensor Tower’s latest Digital Market Index report captures recent developments across mobile app performance, digital advertising, and retail media. The mobile app economy in particular had a fantastic quarter, with global consumer spend across iOS and Google Play surpassing $38 billion, an impressive 12.4% increase year-over-year.

The digital ad market also displayed healthy growth in many key markets, including a 10% YoY increase in US digital ad spend to approach $30 billion for the quarter. Other markets including the UK, Germany, and Canada saw digital ad spend climb by more than 5% YoY as well.

Mobile Consumer Spend Reached $100 Billion in Fewer than 250 Days in 2024

In 2024, worldwide consumer spend across iOS and Google Play surpassed $100 billion on September 5th – the fastest it has ever taken to reach this milestone. For comparison, 2023 consumer spend didn’t reach $100 billion until nearly a month later on October 4th. Worldwide mobile consumer spend surpassed $110 billion by the end of Q3 2024, including a new high $38.1 billion in Q3.

Breaking out the trends by apps vs. games reveals some positive signs across the board. App growth, which has outpaced that of games for several years now, accelerated in Q3 2023 to 25% YoY. Games still have the higher total with $20.4 billion in consumer spend compared to $17.7 billion for apps, though the gap is closing fast. There was some good news for mobile games as well. Consumer spend has trended back in the positive direction, reaching its highest total in more than two years in Q3 2024 off of more modest YoY growth at 3.2%.

And which markets drove such rapid growth in Q3 2024? Mobile performance in Europe was particularly strong, with consumer spend in the region climbing 25% YoY. This far outpaced the 13% YoY growth seen in North America and the 6% YoY growth in Asia over the same period. Still, the US will likely be a key market for many app developers moving forward. Even though its consumer spend growth lagged behind Europe on a percent basis, its $1.54 billion in YoY growth was more than that in all of Europe combined.

TikTok Breaks Records While ChatGPT’s Ascent Has Only Begun

A little over a year after TikTok became the first app to reach $1 billion in a quarter, the short-video sensation continues to push the limits of mobile monetization with a record $1.5 billion in consumer spend in Q3 2024. This includes spend on in-app purchases and subscriptions, and excluded any advertising revenue. The rest of the top 10 apps by global consumer spend were similar to last quarter – the top seven were the exact same in fact – with Google, YouTube, Disney+, and Tinder rounding out the top five.

Looking at downloads, Instagram passed TikTok to regain the top spot in Q3 2024. Another Meta-owned app, Threads, broke into the top 10 for the first time since it launched last year. Meanwhile, ChatGPT climbed four spots to rank among the top 10 for the first time – and it wasn’t the only AI app to gain ground in Q3. Google Gemini ranked third by quarter-over-quarter download growth. Overall, AI Chatbot and AI Art Generator apps combined for more than 360 million downloads and $315 million in consumer spend in Q3 2024, QoQ increases of 15% and 26%, respectively.

The Digital Advertising Market is Healthy Heading into the Holiday Season

Digital ad spend in the United States across mobile, desktop, and OTT approached $30 billion in Q3 2024 with 3.7 trillion impressions. These were both up roughly 10% YoY and suggest record-setting digital ad spend to come in Q4 during the holiday season.

Most other top markets also had strong quarters, including 10% YoY ad spend growth in the UK, 7% growth in Germany, and 6% growth in Canada. And don’t forget to check out the other markets, including two new markets added this quarter: Japan and South Korea.

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

Read the Q3 2024 Digital Market Index report highlighting the market leaders in mobile and digital advertising, spanning 21 markets in a dynamic, interactive format covering:

• Top Markets  - Consumer spend in the US hit a record $13B as several European countries rank among the fastest in YoY growth, with Spain topping the list at +20%

• Top Categories - Productivity, Entertainment, and Photo & Video lead all app categories, surpassing 30% consumer spend growth in Q3 

• Top Games - Honor of Kings led six titles above $400M, as My Supermarket Simulator 3D was the only new game to break into the top 10, by downloads, in Q3

• Digital Advertising - Social channels like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and our newest channel - Reddit - accounted for more than 75% of digital ad spend in Q3 while total ad spend approached $30B heading into the holiday season

• Retail Media - US Retail Media ad impressions climbed 17% in Q3 with four categories surpassing 5 billion