Sensor Tower’s latest data reveals a pivotal shift in mobile spending, with non-gaming applications outpacing gaming revenue for the first time in recent quarters, driven by subscriptions and utility services, while generative AI apps experience exponential growth.
Sensor Tower’s latest market data points to a clear split in mobile spending: non-gaming apps kept expanding in the second quarter of 2026, while games lost momentum. The firm’s Q2 2026 Digital Market Index said non-gaming revenue rose 14.6% year on year to $24.4 billion, whereas gaming revenue fell 4.5% to $19.2 billion. Non-gaming apps also produced far more downloads, underscoring how subscription products and utility services are now carrying much of the market’s growth.
The report also suggests the United States remains the largest single market for in-app purchase spending, even though growth there softened. Sensor Tower said US consumer spend fell 3% year on year to $14.8 billion, while China ranked second at $5.98 billion after 10% growth. On downloads, India kept first place with 6.67 billion installs, ahead of the US on 3.08 billion and Brazil on 2.43 billion.
One of the most notable shifts was the rise of generative artificial intelligence apps. Sensor Tower said the category doubled consumer spend, growing 108% year on year, with ChatGPT accounting for about 60% of category revenue. Claude, Grok and Gemini also gained rapidly, and Claude moved from seventh place in the category a year earlier to second globally in the latest quarter. The broader non-gaming field remained resilient, with nine of the 10 biggest categories posting annual revenue growth.
Apple’s own commentary on its latest earnings call now looks more in step with those figures. The company linked some of its Services slowdown to weaker mobile gaming performance and regulatory changes affecting the App Store model. Sensor Tower’s data also showed Google Play growing faster than iOS in revenue terms during the quarter, suggesting developers are increasingly likely to find their next growth phase outside Apple’s ecosystem as non-gaming subscriptions scale.
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