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AI Apps Overtake Games in Consumer Spending
21 Jan
Summary
- Mobile app spending hit $85 billion in 2025, up 21% year-over-year.
- Generative AI apps generated over $5 billion in in-app purchases.
- AI assistants dominated downloads, with ChatGPT leading revenue.
In 2025, the global mobile app market saw a historic shift as consumer spending on non-game applications surpassed that of games for the first time, reaching approximately $85 billion. This figure represents a substantial 21% year-over-year increase and nearly triples the amount spent just five years prior. The remarkable growth was largely propelled by generative AI applications.
Generative AI apps experienced a revenue explosion, with in-app purchases more than tripling to exceed $5 billion. Downloads for these AI-powered applications also doubled, reaching 3.8 billion. AI assistants were a primary driver, making up all of the top 10 downloaded apps, with OpenAI's ChatGPT leading in revenue generation. Consumers spent an estimated 48 billion hours in generative AI apps during 2025.
Big tech companies significantly invested in their AI assistants, enhancing capabilities like coding, content creation, and reasoning to compete with established players. This investment strategy saw OpenAI and DeepSeek capture nearly 50% of global AI app downloads. Mobile devices played a crucial role, with over 200 million users in the U.S. accessing AI assistants, a significant portion exclusively via their phones.
Beyond AI assistants, other categories like social media and video streaming also contributed to overall app revenue growth. Social media apps, in particular, saw increased engagement, with users spending an average of 90 minutes daily on them, totaling nearly 2.5 trillion hours across the year.
