Mobile economy: The first quarter of 2025 closes with an unequivocal signal: the mobile market continues to grow, but its dynamics are becoming increasingly polarised between download volumes and monetisation capacity. According to the latest report from Sensor Tower, global spending on in-app purchases (IAP) on iOS and Google Play reached $40 billion, marking a new quarterly all-time high and an 11% year-over-year increase. This is the sixth consecutive quarter in which the market has registered double-digit growth, confirming the centrality of the in-app experience in consumers’ digital behaviours.

Not only games

However, this figure does not tell the whole story. The driving force behind this spending is no longer (just) games but non-gaming apps, which, for the first time, are close to surpassing them. The general-purpose app category generated $19.4 billion, with a leap of +24% compared to the previous year. To understand the scale of this change, one only needs to go back five years: in 2020, users spent, on average, 2.5 times more on games than on other apps.

Today, that gap has practically disappeared. This shift is the result of a structural change, not a passing trend. Productivity applications, short-form video platforms, time management solutions, and new forms of hybrid entertainment are redesigning the very concept of a “useful app,” attracting investments, users, and new business models. In this mobile scenario, it is not surprising that the fastest-growing categories are precisely those related to the professional or creative use of the smartphone, from AI-enhanced video editing to personal organisation, as well as educational services and content marketplaces.

iOS dominates in revenue, but Google Play leads in downloads

This transformation also poses new questions for the mobile market, where data traffic is growing, but profitability remains under pressure. Comparison tools on SOStariffe. It shows how operators are already reacting, focusing on advanced mobile phone bundles that combine unlimited gigabytes, access to premium services, and plans designed for specific apps, particularly in the video sector.

The race of the mobile economy in 2025 is also a matter of balance between platforms. Apple and Google remain the two giants sharing the global pie, but Sensor Tower’s report shows how they are interpreting the sector’s growth differently. On one hand, iOS confirms its position as the leading operating system for monetisation, with in-app purchase revenue reaching $28.3 billion in the first quarter of the year alone, equivalent to about 71% of the global total. On the other hand, Google Play maintains its supremacy in installation volumes, accounting for 75% of total downloads between January and March.

Monetisation opportunities are rebalancing

This dichotomy is not new, but it becomes more evident considering the growth data: iOS posted a +13.5% year-over-year increase, while Google Play recorded a more modest +5.2%, held back mainly by the decline in games (-5%) and its persistent absence from the Chinese mobile market. However, the Android marketplace is holding its own in the non-gaming app segment, with +24% growth in line with that observed on the App Store.

The numbers indicate that monetisation opportunities are rebalancing, with Android finding new margins in productivity apps, subscription services, and digital content. Surprisingly, 2025 also marks a decline in the absolute dominance of games. While it is true that the segment continues to represent the largest share of revenue – $20.6 billion in the quarter, just over half of the total – it is equally valid that its growth is slowing. The +1% recorded year-over-year is a far cry from the rates of 2022 and 2023, which ranged between 2% and 5%. Meanwhile, apps related to information, entertainment, and practical services are eroding significant shares of user time and monthly spending.

AI apps at the centre of the new race for engagement

The most interesting data from the first quarter of 2025 concerns neither total revenue nor total downloads but the names of the apps at the top of the charts. For the first time, the top five most downloaded applications in the markets do not include any traditional social networks, any games, or any e-commerce mobile platforms. In their place, applications based on generative artificial intelligence dominate, starting with ChatGPT, Gemini, and DeepSeek, which are seeing millions of installations worldwide and consistently occupy the top spots on both iOS and Google Play.

The phenomenon is more significant when considering the speed at which it has occurred: in less than a year, AI apps have transformed from objects of curiosity for advanced users into everyday tools for millions of people. They are no longer “tech novelties” but essential services used to write, summarise, translate, generate visual or vocal content, and organise one’s activities. Their growth is not only quantitative but also qualitative: users spend more time on them, engage in more interactions, and are more willing to subscribe to paid plans compared to the averages for traditional apps.

A hybrid era is dawning

This trend is already redesigning the very concept of a mobile app, pushing the main stores to rethink their visibility criteria, moderation policies, and even their product categories. Sensor Tower notes that AI apps are often classified inaccurately (productivity, education, entertainment), a sign that the current taxonomy struggles to categorise these new hybrid forms. Meanwhile, ecosystems of micro-services and specialised interfaces are emerging around them, multiplying monetisation opportunities. For developers, a hybrid era is dawning, in which the app is no longer a static container but a dynamic portal to conversational models, personalised bots, and AI-driven environments. For the historical players in mobile market entertainment, a new challenge looms not to lose relevance in a context where “engagement” is measured less by time spent and more by transformative interactions. In this sense, 2025 could be remembered as the year when apps stopped imitating humans and started amplifying them.