In a milestone that signals a significant shift in consumer behavior, mobile app spending surpassed gaming revenue in 2026, with AI-powered apps leading the charge. According to Sensor Tower's annual "State of Mobile" report, consumers spent an impressive $85 billion on non-game apps worldwide, marking a 21% year-over-year increase.
Generative AI Drives Revenue Growth
The rise of generative AI was a key factor in this unprecedented growth. In-app purchases in this category more than tripled to reach $5 billion, with downloads doubling year-over-year to hit 3.8 billion. The popularity of AI assistants among consumers played a significant role, with the top 10 apps by downloads featuring AI-powered chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google Gemini.
Consumer Engagement Skyrockets
Consumers spent an astonishing 48 billion hours in generative AI apps in 2026, representing a 3.6x increase from the previous year and a 10x growth from 2023. Additionally, session volume reached 1 trillion, indicating that existing users were deepening their engagement at a faster rate than new users were being added.
Big Tech's Investments Pay Off
The increasing adoption of AI-powered apps can be attributed to Big Tech companies like Google, Microsoft, and X investing heavily in their AI assistants. These innovations have led to improvements in areas such as coding assistance, content generation, reasoning, task execution, accuracy, and more. The report highlighted the significant advancements made by ChatGPT's GPT-4o image generation model and Google's Nano Banana.
Top Publishers Take Center Stage
Among the top AI publishers, OpenAI and DeepSeek dominated the market with nearly 50% of global downloads, up from 21% in 2024. Big Tech publishers, on the other hand, grew their share to nearly 30%, pushing earlier ChatGPT competitors like Nova, Codeway, and Chat Smith out of the way.
Mobile's Role in AI Adoption
The report emphasized the importance of mobile devices in connecting users with generative AI services. Sensor Tower estimates that the total audience for AI assistants exceeded 200 million in the U.S. by year-end, with over half (110 million) accessing these services exclusively on their mobile devices.
Beyond Assistants: Other Popular AI Apps
Beyond AI-powered assistants, other popular apps included Suno, an AI music generation app; Jimeng AI, a text-to-video app from ByteDance; and AI companion apps like Character.ai and Polybuzz. However, AI wasn't the only revenue driver in 2026; other categories like social media, video streaming, and productivity also contributed to the growth.
Conclusion
The rise of AI-powered mobile apps has revolutionized consumer spending habits, with generative AI leading the charge. As consumers increasingly turn to their mobile devices for AI-driven experiences, app developers can capitalize on this trend by incorporating AI into their offerings. With Big Tech companies continuing to invest in AI innovations and mobile playing a crucial role in connecting users, the future of AI-powered apps looks brighter than ever.