Mobile app downloads hit 136 billion in 2024 as revenue surges to $150bn

New app downloads reached 136 billion in 2024 despite a slight year-over-year (YoY) decline of 1%.

That's according to Sensor Tower's State of Mobile 2025 report, which also shows that in-app purchase revenue grew substantially by 12.5%, totalling $150bn, with an average of $285,000 spent per minute. 

In 2024 alone, mobile game IAP revenue reached $80.9bn, a 4% increase from the previous year, despite a 6% decline in downloads to 49.6bn. 

This growth was notably strong in emerging markets, including Mexico (21%), India (17%), and Thailand (16%), with Turkiye leading at 28%. Established markets like the US saw steady growth, while North Asia faced challenges with a 7% decline. 

Leading game genres 

In 2024, the simulation and puzzle genres led global mobile game downloads, each with 20% of the total, with simulation seeing slight growth (+0.4%) and puzzle experiencing a modest decline (-3%). 

Arcade games held 19% of downloads despite a 12.5% drop. Lifestyle and action genres saw larger declines, while strategy games grew significantly (+14.5%) in downloads. 

Despite only 4% of total downloads, strategy games accounted for 21.4% of revenue, highlighting the potential of niche categories alongside dominant genres.

AI on the rise 

Last year, iOS and Google Play apps mentioning AI-related terms in their name, subtitle, or description surpassed 17 billion downloads globally, a significant increase from 5 billion in 2019. 

These apps accounted for about 13% of all app downloads that year. Key markets such as India, the US, China, Indonesia, and Brazil each contributed over a billion downloads. 

ChatGPT's mobile usage surged dramatically, with its monthly active users (MAUs) growing by 500% year-over-year, reaching over 160m in Q3 2024 - the largest increase among comparable apps. 

Overall, users spent 4.2tn hours on mobile apps in 2024, a 5.8% YoY increase, averaging over 500 hours per person annually. Daily usage rose to 3.5 hours per user, up by 2.9%, and users interacted with an average of 26 apps per month, a 9.2% YoY growth.