AI Apps Divert Spending from Mobile Games — Game Revenue Drops 4.5%

According to Sensor Tower, in Q2 2026 non-game applications remained the main driver of global consumer spending growth in the mobile software segment on Apple iOS and Google Android, while game revenue declined 4.5% year-over-year. Apple also noted the slowdown in services revenue growth due to lower mobile game performance and regulatory pressure on the App Store model. Non-game app revenue rose 14.6% year-over-year to $24.4 billion with 25.5 billion downloads, while games brought in $19.2 billion with 11.3 billion downloads. US in-app purchase revenue fell 3% year-over-year but remained the world's largest at $14.8 billion, followed by China with $5.98 billion and 10% growth. India led in downloads with 6.67 billion, up 4.5%, followed by the US with 3.08 billion (down 0.2%) and Brazil with 2.43 billion (down 2%). Generative AI became the leading non-game category, with consumer spending up 108%; ChatGPT led with about 60% of category revenue and 82% growth. Competitors like Anthropic Claude, xAI Grok, and Google Gemini also grew strongly; Claude rose from seventh to second place in a year. The only category with global decline was dating and social networking, down 11%, mainly due to a 34% drop in the US, though Latin American countries like Mexico (+41%), Brazil (+19%), and Argentina (+18%) showed growth. ChatGPT was the most downloaded app, followed by TikTok and Instagram*, while TikTok, ChatGPT, and Google One generated the most in-app purchase revenue.