State of Mobile TikTok Edition – Momentum Beyond Q5

While Q4 (October through December) remains the year’s biggest quarter in absolute numbers for many verticals on mobile, the period between the end of the holidays season into early Q1 (Q5) consistently sees strong performance across downloads and revenue, especially for mobile-first categories like Entertainment, Lifestyle, and Education. A number of factors contribute to this increase in demand, including consumers looking to add apps to new phones purchased during the holidays, taking advantage of downtime while out of work and school, and new years resolutions.

The State of Mobile 2025: TikTok Edition report, a collaboration between Sensor Tower's market intelligence and TikTok's cultural insight, dives into the latest mobile trends. It examines everything from seasonal mobile demand fluctuations to regions exhibiting the greatest growth potential.

Find Your Q5 Moment

Each vertical has its own Q5 moment — a period of accelerated growth driven by intent. For Fitness and Education, it’s January. For Dating, it might be summer as the nicer weather encourages users to get outside for dates. For Entertainment, it could be tied to seasonal content drops or high-engagement periods like holiday downtime.

Health & Fitness in particular sees a significant boost during Q5 due to New Years' resolutions. In the US, Health & Fitness downloads are typically more than 20% above their yearly average between Christmas through mid-January, and remain slightly elevated even into February. IAP revenue also tends to be higher in early January, though the impact of adding new users is likely spread out over a longer period of time given free trials and it taking some time to convert free users into paid subscribers.

Top Health & Fitness apps are able to take advantage of this period when demand is high and CPMs drop post-holidays, making it a cost-effective window to acquire high-intent users. They align with January mindsets to target new years behaviors, plan in-app events and launch fresh content to keep new users engaged past install, and optimize subscription funnels to help users explore premium services tied to resolutions or life upgrades. Q5 isn’t downtime — it’s prime time for app discovery, habit formation, and growth. The best apps don’t treat January as an off-season — they treat it as a launchpad.

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.

• Mobile Geo Expansion: Discover how apps successfully expand to new markets and which markets have the highest growth potential.

• 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.