Mobile IAP revenue dipped 2% while ad spend climbed in H1 2026

• Downloads fell 12% to 24bn while IAP revenue fell 2% to $40bn.
• Gaming ad spend climbed 8% to $7bn.
• Honor of Kings retook the IAP crown.
• Tencent still leads, followed by Century Games jumping to second.

Mobile in-app purchase revenue totalled $40 billion worldwide during the first half of 2026, down 2% year-over-year.

It was a smaller decline than was seen in downloads, down 12% to 24bn. 

That's according to Sensor Tower's H1 2026 Gaming Digital Market Index report, which showed that gaming digital ad spend grew 8% to $7bn, with ad impressions up 14% to 1.4 trillion.

Honor of Kings retook the worldwide IAP lead through a reshuffle at the top rather than a spending surge, earning almost $1.1bn despite dipping about 2% Y/Y. Last War: Survival recorded $977 million and Whiteout Survival reached $918m, each down roughly 16%.

Gossip Harbor and Kingshot broke into the top 10 on triple-digit growth, displacing Roblox and Pokémon TCG Pocket. Royal Match, Monopoly Go, Candy Crush Saga and Coin Master also ranked highly.

Block Blast, Free Fire and Roblox led downloads, while Roblox led average MAU, followed by Free Fire and Block Blast. None of those leaders cracked the IAP top 10, and Candy Crush Saga was the only game to rank in both.

Publisher shakeup and genre distribution

The report also looked at publishers, revealing Tencent stayed the uncontested leader in IAPs and downloads. Century Games did close the gap somewhat, climbing from fourth to second and growing in-app purchase revenue by 45%, narrowing Tencent's lead from 3.7x to 2.6x.

Eight publishers cleared $1bn in H1 2026. Microfun and Omnilojo doubled in-app purchase revenue to break into the top 10 and top 20 respectively, while Roblox and miHoYo posted the steepest declines, down 29% and 24% respectively.

Looking at genres, strategy led on mobile with $9.3bn, ahead of puzzle at $8.1bn, RPG at $6.1bn and casino at $5bn. Puzzle's in-app purchase revenue rose nearly 20% while strategy slipped about 5%, narrowing the gap from roughly $3bn to $1.2bn.

Simulation led time spent at 44.1bn hours in H1, followed by puzzle, strategy and shooter. Downloads fell in every genre, dropping about 12% overall. Even so, action and strategy accounted for 49% of IAP revenue despite amassing just 17% of downloads, while lifestyle and puzzle supplied 74% of installs and 53% of playtime for only 34% of spend.

On average, Block Blast’s MAU on Roblox jumped 68% Y/Y even though downloads rose only about 11%, while Roblox's MAU grew 18% on nearly flat installs. 

Puzzle led genre ad spend worldwide at 33%, ahead of strategy's 21%, RPG's 9.6%, Casino's 9.2% and simulation's 7.2%.

Puzzle led ad spend in the US, UK, Canada and much of Europe, while strategy led in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia and Singapore. 

Regional IAP outlook

The United States remained the top country for IAP revenue, ahead of China, Japan and South Korea. However, IAP softened in the US (-7%), Japan (-10%) and Korea (-10%), while China held flat on revenue even as playtime there fell 14%.

Meanwhile, Europe saw in-app purchase revenue rise about 10%, led by Germany, the UK and France.

Africa's downloads nearly held flat (-2%), while several large European and Southeast Asian markets dropped close to 20%.

About ad revenue

In developing markets like India, Indonesia and Brazil, ad revenue drove 55% to 70% of earnings, while mature markets including the US, Canada, South Korea and Japan leaned on in-app purchases for 77% to 90%.

YouTube emerged as the fastest-growing major ad channel, taking a 16.4% share of mobile ad spend behind mobile apps at 54.8%.

Browser gaming visits rose about 7% to roughly 9.5bn in H1 2026, driven by Asia, where visits climbed about 18% to 3.5bn. Latin America stayed consistent at around 1.2bn visits, while Africa and the Middle East remained smaller but steadier in H1 2026. Europe was the soft spot, with visits down about 9% and daily active users down about 14%.

Mid-core remained the largest mobile product model but kept losing ground from its early decade peak. Casual held steady and hybridcasual emerged as the market's clear growth engine.

You can access the full report here.