State of Mobile 2026: The Industry-Defining Report
Generative AI continued its historic ascent. Mobile entered a monetization-first era. Users spent 5.3 trillion hours on apps. This is just a taste of the trends and milestones that shaped this past year. Our industry-defining report, State of Mobile 2026, is here to fill in the rest, covering everything from the gender distribution of Gen AI users, to the ad networks that won gaming apps the most impressions.
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Here are some of the highlights:
Generative AI Defined Mobile in 2025: AI assistants reached massive user bases and expanded into new use cases, while generative AI became a key growth driver across the mobile ecosystem.
Mobile Entered a Monetization-First Era: The mobile market is mature but far from stagnant, with growth shifting decisively toward monetization as leading apps deploy increasingly diverse revenue strategies.
Gaming Continues Shift From Scale To Efficiency: With UA costs elevated, winners sustained growth by improving unit economics via deeper monetization and live ops discipline, supported by high-attention ad formats.
Non-Game Apps Surpassed Games for Mobile Revenue: For the first time, consumers spent more on non-game apps than games in 2025, fueled by strong revenue growth across generative AI, social media, video streaming, and productivity.
The Attention Economy Spans Categories: Games now compete with social, short-form drama, and AI apps for time spent. Capturing attention is the clearest path to monetization, retention, and long-term growth.
Mobile is Global — But Knowing Your Market Is Key: Mobile is increasingly interconnected, yet country-specific forces (like tariffs and regulations) make deep market knowledge critical, from retail to sports betting.