--- title: "Where Mobile Money Goes Now" description: "Apps overtook games in mobile IAP revenue for the first time in 2025, driven by $3.5B in GenAI growth. Analysis of Sensor Tower's State of Mobile 2026 report." date: 2026-02-07 updated: 2026-03-15 author: "Philipp D. Dubach" categories: - "AI" keywords: - "state of mobile 2026" - "mobile app revenue vs games 2025" - "GenAI app revenue 2025" - "ChatGPT app revenue" - "AI app demographics" - "Sensor Tower state of mobile" - "mobile gaming revenue decline" - "app economy trends 2025" - "GenAI consumer spending" - "AI app adoption" - "YouTube most popular app all ages" - "mobile in-app purchase revenue" - "AI advertising demographics" - "Waymo ride volume 2025" - "mobile app subscription revenue" - "autonomous ride-hailing growth" - "AI referral traffic retail" - "cross-generational app usage" - "mobile monetization trends" - "consumer spending mobile apps" type: "Analysis" canonical_url: "https://philippdubach.com/posts/where-mobile-money-goes-now/" source_url: "https://philippdubach.com/posts/where-mobile-money-goes-now/index.md" content_signal: search=yes, ai-input=yes, ai-train=yes --- # Where Mobile Money Goes Now *Philipp D. Dubach · Published February 7, 2026 · Updated March 15, 2026* ## Key Takeaways - Non-game apps hit $85.6 billion in mobile IAP revenue in 2025, overtaking games ($81.8B) for the first time, with GenAI adding $3.5 billion as the single largest growth category. - ChatGPT accounts for 40% of GenAI consumer app spending, making it the third-highest grossing app globally behind TikTok and Google One. - GenAI users cluster demographically with Reddit and X, not Instagram or Pinterest, meaning AI apps are scaling revenue while still reaching a niche audience. - YouTube is the only app ranked #1 across every US age group from 18-24 to 45+, something TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook have never achieved. --- Sensor Tower's [State of Mobile 2026](https://sensortower.com/state-of-mobile-2026) report confirms what had been building for years: the mobile app economy has permanently shifted. For the first decade of mobile, games made more money than everything else combined. Clash of Clans and Candy Crush built empires on freemium. King went public. Supercell sold for $10 billion. That changed in 2025. ## Apps Overtake Games in Mobile Revenue ![Line chart showing apps overtaking games in mobile IAP revenue in 2025, with apps at $85.6B and games at $81.8B, per Sensor Tower's State of Mobile 2026](https://static.philippdubach.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1600,quality=85,format=auto/apps_vs_games_revenue.png) Non-game applications now generate more in-app purchase revenue than games. Apps crossed $85.6 billion in 2025, up 21% year-over-year. Games managed $81.8 billion, barely moving from the year before. Games peaked in 2021 and flatlined. Apps kept compounding. Subscriptions, which seemed like a novelty in 2018, became the dominant mobile monetization model for cloud storage, language learning, and now AI. ## GenAI: The $3.5 Billion Growth Engine ![Horizontal bar chart showing GenAI led mobile app revenue growth in 2025 with $3.5B added, more than any other category](https://static.philippdubach.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1600,quality=85,format=auto/genai_revenue_growth.png) Generative AI was the biggest contributor to consumer spending on mobile apps. The category added $3.5 billion in IAP revenue in 2025, more than Movies & TV ($2.2B) or Social Media ($2.1B). It went from near-zero in 2022 to the top growth category in three years. ![Combined bar and line chart showing GenAI app downloads rising from 0.05B in 2021 to 1.45B in 2024, with revenue hitting $1.25B](https://static.philippdubach.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1600,quality=85,format=auto/genai_rise.png) GenAI apps went from 50 million downloads in 2021 to 1.45 billion in 2024. Revenue jumped from essentially nothing to $1.25 billion. ChatGPT alone accounts for 40% of the category's consumer spend. This is just in-app purchases and does not count subscriptions billed outside the app store or enterprise contracts. ## Who Actually Uses AI Apps The demographics are interesting: AI app users look nothing like the broader internet population. ![Scatter plot showing GenAI user demographics cluster with Reddit and X (young, male-skewing), not Instagram or Pinterest](https://static.philippdubach.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1600,quality=85,format=auto/genai_demographics.png) GenAI users cluster with Reddit and X. Young, male, tech-adjacent. They look nothing like Instagram (young women) or Pinterest (older women) or even Facebook (everyone's parents). The AI audience is still a niche, even as GenAI app revenue scales. ## The AI Advertising Playbook This explains where AI companies advertise: ![Horizontal bar chart showing AI companies over-index on LinkedIn (+45%) and under-index on Pinterest (-13%) and YouTube (-9%) for ad demographics](https://static.philippdubach.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1600,quality=85,format=auto/ai_advertising_skew.png) LinkedIn gets 45% more GenAI ad impressions than its share of the general population would suggest. Pinterest and YouTube get less. The AI advertising playbook is simple: find professionals, not consumers. *Related: [Europe's $24 Trillion Payment Breakup Is Really a Bet on Infrastructure Arbitrage](https://philippdubach.com/posts/europes-24-trillion-payment-breakup-is-really-a-bet-on-infrastructure-arbitrage/)* ## AI-Driven Retail Referral Traffic One place where AI has found consumers: shopping. ![Stacked area chart showing GenAI referral traffic to major retailers growing from ~$5M to ~$51M between Oct 2024 and Dec 2025](https://static.philippdubach.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1600,quality=85,format=auto/ai_retail_referrals.png) Referral traffic from AI tools to major retailers grew roughly 7x between October 2024 and December 2025. People are asking ChatGPT what to buy, and then buying it. Amazon captures the largest share, but Walmart, Target, and Home Depot have all seen triple-digit percentage growth in AI-driven traffic. Still less than 1% of total retail traffic. But growing fast. ## YouTube's Cross-Generational Dominance One pattern stands out: ![Table showing YouTube is the #1 app across every age group in the US (18-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45+) per Sensor Tower](https://static.philippdubach.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1600,quality=85,format=auto/youtube_dominance.png) YouTube is the top app across every age demographic. Every single one. 18-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45+. No other app has achieved this. Not TikTok (appears for youngest and oldest, vanishes in the middle). Not Instagram (fades with age). Not Facebook (rises with age). YouTube alone spans generations. *Related: [The Most Expensive Assumption in AI](https://philippdubach.com/posts/the-most-expensive-assumption-in-ai/)* ## Waymo's Quiet Expansion Finally, Waymo: ![Line chart showing Waymo's autonomous ride-hailing penetration of Lyft and Uber users rising to ~4% and ~3% respectively by Q4 2025](https://static.philippdubach.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1600,quality=85,format=auto/waymo_penetration.png) Waymo accounts for about 4% of Lyft users and 3% of Uber users nationally, despite operating in only a handful of cities. In its active markets (San Francisco, Phoenix), market share is closer to 15%. The company has driven 127 million autonomous miles and tripled its ride volume to 15 million trips in 2025. Mobile is no longer a platform question. It is a distribution question. The app economy winners so far: AI companies targeting professionals, YouTube serving everyone, and autonomous vehicles growing quietly in the background. --- ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Did mobile apps make more money than games in 2025? Yes, for the first time ever. Non-game apps generated $85.6 billion in in-app purchase revenue in 2025, surpassing games at $81.8 billion. This historic shift was driven primarily by GenAI, social media, and streaming subscriptions. ### How much revenue did GenAI apps generate in 2025? Generative AI was the biggest contributor to app revenue growth in 2025, adding $3.5 billion. ChatGPT alone accounts for about 40% of consumer spending in the GenAI category, making it the third-highest grossing app globally behind TikTok and Google One. ### What is the demographic profile of GenAI app users? GenAI app users skew young and male, clustering demographically with Reddit and X (formerly Twitter) rather than mainstream apps like Instagram or Pinterest. This suggests AI apps have not yet crossed into broad consumer adoption. ### Which app has the widest cross-generational reach? YouTube is the only app that ranks number 1 across every age demographic in the US: 18-24, 25-34, 35-44, and 45+. No other app, including TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook, has achieved this level of universal appeal. ### Why is mobile gaming revenue declining? Mobile gaming revenue is not declining in absolute terms but has effectively flatlined, growing just 1.3% year-over-year to $81.8 billion in 2025. Games peaked in 2021 during the pandemic and have stagnated while non-game apps, led by AI and subscriptions, grew 21% in the same period. ### What is the fastest growing mobile app category in 2025? Generative AI was the fastest growing mobile app category in 2025, adding $3.5 billion in in-app purchase revenue and growing from near-zero in 2022 to the top growth category in three years. GenAI app downloads rose from 50 million in 2021 to 1.45 billion in 2024. ### Is Waymo gaining market share from Uber and Lyft? Yes. Waymo accounts for about 4% of Lyft users and 3% of Uber users nationally despite operating in only a handful of cities. In its active markets like San Francisco and Phoenix, market share is closer to 15%. The company tripled its ride volume to 15 million trips in 2025. --- Canonical: https://philippdubach.com/posts/where-mobile-money-goes-now/ Content-Signal: search=yes, ai-input=yes, ai-train=yes This file is the canonical machine-readable variant of https://philippdubach.com/posts/where-mobile-money-goes-now/. Author: Philipp D. Dubach (https://philippdubach.com/).