Dive Brief: 

• Consumer spending on in-app purchases and subscriptions for their smartphones grew to $150 billion globally in 2024, a 13% year-over-year increase, per Sensor Tower’s latest State of Mobile report. 
• For the fourth consecutive year, growth in consumer spend on non-gaming apps outpaced spend on games. Spend on non-gaming apps increased by nearly $14 billion in 2024, up 25% YoY, compared with 4% YoY growth for gaming apps.
• Generative artificial intelligence (AI) apps had the most explosive growth in 2024, with consumer spending increasing 200% YoY to $1.1 billion on apps including ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Doubao. At that rate, the subcategory could reach the top 10 by consumer spending within a year. 

Dive Insight:

Along with identifying an increase in in-app spending, Sensor Tower’s latest state of the industry report shows that consumers’ time spent on their mobile phones increased by 5.8% YoY in 2024 to a whopping 4.2 trillion total hours worldwide. Wider availability of generative AI platforms led to a massive increase in the category’s revenue take, though it remains behind established stalwarts.

Social media and film and television streaming were the top in-app revenue-producing categories, accounting for $11.7 billion and $11.9 billion in spending, respectively. Interestingly, the two categories have taken different approaches to revenue generation. Social media relies heavily on in-app purchases and creator tipping. It’s also mainly dominated by two platforms, TikTok and YouTube, which alone make up more than 70% of category consumer spend. Meanwhile, film and television streaming apps monetize through subscriptions, which has led to more competition. Nine different apps account for at least 3% of the overall streaming revenue, and none account for more than 15%.

Still, the ways consumers are choosing to use their mobile devices are beginning to shift. The report shows growth in app categories that connect users across devices or to in-person experiences. Food and drink app downloads, for instance, increased 8.5% YoY as more companies integrated their app into the overall customer experience. Similarly, finance apps, led by the popularity of digital wallets and mobile banking, saw 8% YoY download growth to 7.5 billion and a 21% increase in time spent.

“As consumers spend more time on mobile, they are becoming far more comfortable making purchases on their devices,” said Oliver Yeh, CEO and co-founder of Sensor Tower, in a statement. “Apps have shifted their monetization strategies to capitalize on this increased attention, finding innovative ways to streamline and improve consumers' digital experience.”