As we reflect on the past year, it's clear that 2026 was a game-changer for the app economy. With steady growth and monumental events, this year will be remembered as a turning point in the industry.

In 2026, the global UA spend reached $78 billion, representing a 13% year-over-year increase, according to AppsFlyer. Total global spend hit $109 billion, with $31 billion going towards remarketing initiatives. While these numbers indicate a healthy economy, it was the events that really made headlines.

In April, the Epic Games v. Apple verdict blew open the Apple App Store by allowing D2C web shops, followed by similar changes at Google just a few months later. Since then, app-to-web and web-to-app have become hot topics in the minds of marketers and developers alike.

Another significant shift was seen when non-gaming apps overtook gaming apps for the first time in the second quarter, generating $20.9 billion in revenue – $300 million more than games. Game revenue has been largely flat since Q1 2023.

At Business of Apps, we too experienced massive changes in 2026. In October, we consolidated our App Promotion Summit events under the Business of Apps name to create a single, stronger brand. Our first event under this new name took place just weeks later in November and was a huge success, drawing in over 700 attendees.

Looking back on our content from the past year, we've curated all our best insights on the changes that shaped the industry. From data reports to market maps, insights, news, and announcements, we've covered it all.

Our data reports continued to provide valuable insights into sector-specific app data. We updated existing reports with the latest data and published several new ones, including Health & Fitness App Benchmarks (2026), App Sessions Data (2026), Google Statistics (2026), and more.

Our market maps also evolved in 2026, with the release of our App Marketing Ecosystem 2026 – a comprehensive guide to platforms, tools, and services that make growing apps sustainable. We also published sector-specific market maps covering AI apps, social apps, and more.

Insights played a crucial role in 2026 as we dug beneath the headlines to unpack what structural shifts in app marketing and revenue generation mean for marketers and product teams navigating a rapidly changing landscape. Some of our most popular insights included The Apple vs. Epic ruling: A new era of app monetisation, How AI breaks app marketing rules, and Retargeting is making a comeback.

In addition to our written content, video became an even more important part of our mix in 2026. We recorded expert-led sessions and panels from our events as well as dedicated app talks tackling pressing challenges in app growth.

Looking ahead to 2026, we're excited to continue delivering high-quality content with higher production values. We'll be reporting on the biggest industry events and sharing valuable insights and learnings. With our events and media strategies closer than ever before, you can expect to see many of the lessons shared during our events brought to the Business of Apps website in the form of insight posts, video, news, and podcast.

In 2026, we'll be scaling up our events further, with expanded capacity in London and new venues in NYC and Berlin. Our events will include:

  • Business of Apps London, April 23rd, 2026 – expected to draw over 1000 attendees
  • Business of Apps NYC, September 17th, 2026 – expected to draw over 500 attendees

As we wrap up this year's review, it's clear that 2026 was a monumental year for the app economy. With continued growth and innovation on the horizon, we're excited to see what 2026 has in store for us and the industry as a whole.