Report: State of Mobile TikTok Edition – How to Win on Mobile in 2025

In 2025, success isn't just about downloads. It's about recognizing behavioral signals, unlocking new audiences, and turning moments into momentum. Mobile is more competitive than it's ever been, but also more open, with competition spanning the globe, emerging markets surging, new monetization models proving their worth, and full-funnel strategies redefining how brands think about growth.

The State of Mobile 2025: TikTok Edition report, built by Sensor Tower's market intelligence and TikTok's cultural insight — brings together hard data and human behavior shaping the future of mobile. This report expands on insights from the State of Mobile 2025 report released earlier this year, and includes deep dives on additional topics like geo expansion, productivity & utilities, and dating.

We spotlight how brands are winning in markets once considered closed, how "Q5" isn't a month but a mindset, and why communities are quietly becoming the new retention engine. If you're building an app today, this report isn't just a look at where we are. It's a blueprint for where to go next.

Going Global is No Longer Optional

Competition on mobile has spread across the globe, with publishers from the United States, China, and other markets looking to expand their reach. By 2024, nearly four out of every five dollars spent on mobile went to foreign based publishers – meaning only 22% of in-app purchase (IAP) revenue across iOS and Google Play went to publishers headquartered in the country where the purchase was made.

Which markets provide the best opportunities for foreign publishers looking to expand? Several top APAC countries saw their share of revenue from local publishers decline as they faced competition from app developers across the globe. The share of Japan's IAP revenue from domestic-based publishers fell 16 percentage points between 2019 and 2024, and South Korea had a 12 percentage point decline over the same period.

These markets have historically been difficult for foreign publishers to break into, with domestic publishers holding a better understanding of each’s unique consumer preferences. More recently, however, app developers are discovering that it is worth the effort to localize their apps for these markets beyond language support, creating specific content and themes that will appeal to these audiences – and the results speak for themselves.

Use the Latest Market Performance Scores to Find High Growth Markets

To understand which markets have the highest potential for your vertical, the first step is to measure the relative strength of each market – and how it is trending. Sensor Tower's market scores rank each market based on three fundamentals: per user acquisition, engagement, and monetization potential. Each market was rated using these metrics on a scale from one to five (five for the top performing markets), with the overall score calculated as a weighted average of these three scores.

Looking broadly at the non-gaming app market, the US, Australia, and Japan each ranked among the top five markets, driven by high monetization, while strong user acquisition scores propelled the UAE and Saudi Arabia to #2 and #4, respectively. Germany topped the included markets by growth score in 2024 with strong revenue and download growth. Australia, the US, France, Canada, and the UK also continued to provide huge growth potential for non-games.

Japan was a notable market where growth lagged due to weakening economic conditions in the country, though more recent trends in 2025 reveal that publishers (particularly those based outside of Japan) are starting to perform well there. To find out which markets score the best for Utilities & Productivity, Health & Fitness, and Dating apps, check out the full report.

Want More Insights on What’s Next for Mobile? Read the Full Report

Read the State of Mobile: TikTok Edition report covering the latest strategies to succeed on mobile, spanning 21 markets in a dynamic, interactive format covering:

• AI on Mobile: Generative AI is already reshaping the mobile space and apps across verticals are incorporating new AI features.

• The Power of Communities: Top apps from Health & Fitness to Dating look to connect people with similar interests, both digitally and in-person.

• Productivity & Utilities: AI has only accelerated consumers’ desire to boost productivity, and mobile apps help provide solutions from AI Chatbots to File Management to PDF Editors.

• Health & Fitness: Health & Fitness apps saw a resurgent year in 2024. Consumers have embraced personalized workout and fitness apps for years — now they turn to mobile apps for personalized healthcare and to find new communities.

• Dating: Dating patterns returned to normal, with the fastest revenue gaining apps focusing on dating over friend finding and social discovery.