In 2025, spending on non-game mobile apps surpassed spending on games for the first time, with consumers globally shelling out around $85 billion on apps. This represents a 21% increase from the previous year and nearly 2.8 times the amount spent five years prior. Generative AI apps were the primary drivers of this growth, with in-app purchase revenue in this category tripling to exceed $5 billion. Downloads of AI apps also surged, reaching 3.8 billion, reflecting a growing consumer interest in AI technologies. The demand for AI assistants fueled this trend, as the top downloaded apps included leaders like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and DeepSeek. ChatGPT alone generated $3.4 billion in in-app purchases. Consumers spent 48 billion hours using generative AI apps, a staggering increase from previous years. The number of sessions also hit over 1 trillion, indicating that users are becoming more engaged with the apps they already use, rather than just downloading new ones. Major tech companies like Google and Microsoft have heavily invested in their AI offerings, rapidly rolling out enhancements to compete with established apps like ChatGPT. OpenAI and DeepSeek now account for nearly 50% of global downloads, up significantly from 21% in 2024. Meanwhile, Big Tech's share of the market grew from 14% to around 30%, pushing out earlier competitors. Mobile access is critical for these AI services, with over 200 million users in the U.S. engaging with AI assistants, more than half of whom use mobile devices exclusively. Other app categories, such as social media and productivity, also contributed to the overall growth, with users averaging 90 minutes per day on social media apps.