The State of Mobile 2025 Report

2024 was a banner year for the mobile market, with a whopping 4.2 trillion hours spent on Apps and $150 billion in user spend.As the frontrunner in mobile market intelligence, Sensor Tower is excited to unveil our most comprehensive report yet. Packed with key insights to elevate your digital strategy, this report uncovers the trends, tactics, and campaigns that defined the year.Here's a sneak peek at what you’ll discover in the Report:📲 Connecting Mobile to In-Person: App categories that bridge digital and real-world experiences—like outdoor health & fitness, grocery, and dining—are thriving amid digital fatigue.🎮 Mobile Gaming Bounces Back: Gaming spending surged to $81 billion (+4% YoY), driven by Strategy, Puzzle, and Action games.🌍 Competition Goes Global: The e-commerce landscape heats up as Chinese giants Temu and SHEIN expand their reach.📹 Video Dominates Spending: Streaming and Social Media apps see […]

Gamigion January 22

Reports

8 Predictions for Gaming M&A and Investments in 2025

Written by our Partner, InvestGame. 2024 was a year of recovery and strategic recalibration for the gaming industry. After years of pandemic-related challenges and shifting market dynamics, the sector is gradually finding its footing. As demand for gaming fell post-COVID, many public companies struggled to demonstrate positive organic revenue growth (i.e. growth excluding revenue from recently acquired companies), often missing analyst expectations. Rising interest rates and broader macroeconomic uncertainty further affected valuations for publicly traded gaming firms, making company stock less attractive currency for new acquisitions. This led sellers of acquisition targets to prefer cash over buyers’ illiquid, risky, and typically depreciating stocks. Meanwhile, debt raised during the pandemic to finance acquisitions has become more expensive to service. Coupled with weaker organic performance, these factors tightened debt covenants and led numerous public strategic players to announce strategic reviews, lay off […]

Gamigion January 20

Journal

Mobile Gaming 2022 to 2025

Mobile Gaming grew in 2024 by 5.3% YoY (Sensor Tower, worldwide data excluding China) 📲 . But downloads are lagging both on Android and iOS... are we seeing a shift towards smaller number of bigger games? At the same time concentration among top publishers is not necessarily growing🤔 ... Genres that had significant scale and high growth rates were Board, Casual, Strategy, Puzzle - they were growing both in 2024 (2024 vs 2023) and in 2023 (2023 vs 2022). All details how mobile gaming was behaving in 2024 you can find in my report 📕 📕 📕 - almost 60 pages with different data analyses, data points around mobile gaming (from various data sources).#mobilegaming #data #insights #gaming #market #mobilegaming2025

Mariusz Gąsiewski January 15

Highlights

Mobile Game Leaders: 2024 Analysis

Market Performance Global consumer spending on Mobile Games declined for the second consecutive year, reaching $107 billion in 2023. Mobile game downloads fell for the first time, totaling 88 billion. Emerging Trends Casualization: There's a notable shift towards more Casual Gaming experiences, with Mid-core games facing challenges connecting with their audiences. Brands & IPs: Brands are increasingly engaging in partnerships to attract new audiences, leveraging well-known intellectual properties to enhance appeal. Regional Developments Chinese gaming companies have significantly expanded their global presence, with China-based publishers capturing a third of global revenue. They've successfully entered markets like Japan & U.S. through quality production and localization efforts. WeChat Minigames Are Crushing It in China Technological Innovations Advancements in cloud gaming and AI integration have been pivotal. Big Studios like Tencent and NetEase are leading with cloud gaming platforms and AI-driven game features, […]

Ömer Yakabagi January 9

Journal

Mobile Gaming & Apps in India

Sharing new report about Mobile, Mobile Gaming and Mobile Apps in India!!! 🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳 (based on Sensor Tower, Statista, Emarketer, GWI, Stat Counter). The report provides a comparative analysis of major mobile gaming and non-mobile categories across 2022, 2023, and 2024, 𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐨𝐫𝐲. 𝘕𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘯𝘦𝘵 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘢 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 2024 𝘢𝘯𝘥 2029 𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 300𝘔. 𝘔𝘰𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘯-𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘶𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘥𝘴-𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵. There are many other such elements in that country. Since a lot of data points about mobile technology, gaming, and apps are scattered across various sources, I decided to compile them . It is version 2.0 of the report I did about India some time ago (based on latest data). - Mobile in India - in-app and subscriptions - in-app and in-game advertising […]

Mariusz Gąsiewski January 8

Journal

Why playable ads kick ass in UA: 101 guide

Actions speak louder than words. Doing is always better than showing. Don’t talk about buying your wife flowers. Buy them. It’s the same with playable ads. Why show what your game is about when you can get people to play it? Video ads get boring too, and playable ads can add some spice to your UA campaigns. For the unfamiliar, playable ads are minigames that give users a brief glimpse of what your game looks like. Here’s everything you need to know about them. More: How to Create Playables Where did playable ads come from? Playable ads used to be developed by ad networks for advertisers. However, advertisers didn’t have the control to test or experiment with different creatives. Now, there are a lot of drag-and-drop tools that make it easy to develop. Alternatively, you can also easily produce them […]

Matej Lancaric January 5

Highlights

User Acquisition & Creative Learnings 2024

The article breaks down the game-changing lessons in User Acquisition (UA) and creative strategies for mobile marketing in 2024. It's packed with insights you can't afford to miss, from diversifying UA channels and leveraging AI-driven optimization to mastering creative production and adapting to shifting platforms. It highlights how detailed creative briefs, effective communication, and experimental tools like TikTok Creative Challenges helped marketers stay ahead in a rapidly changing post-IDFA world. As we gear up for 2025, the stakes are higher than ever. Success lies in embracing AI-generated UGC, incentivized ads, and playables to drive engagement, slash CPIs, and scale effectively. This guide provides the playbook for dominance, with actionable steps for refining your strategies, optimizing your teams, and staying ahead of the competition. Don’t fall behind—future-proof your UA strategy now! Dive into this must-read guide and equip yourself with the tools and tactics to crush it […]

Matej Lancaric December 26

Journal

Mobile Gaming in South East Asia

South East Asia is a region with strong potential for growth in the coming years, particularly within the mobile sector. This includes mobile gaming, non-gaming apps, and the overall mobile industry. I got a lot of questions about data for this region. For that reason I created that report covering mobile topics (with strong focus on mobile gaming and mobile apps) in South East Asia (especially: Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia). - general data about internet and mobile in South East Asia - detailed data about mobile gaming in South East Asia - detailed information about mobile apps in South East Asia

Mariusz Gąsiewski December 19

Highlights

Mobile Game Leaders: November 2024

Helloii! Welcome to the November version of Mobile Game Leaders. To compare the data with the previous month, check our October Report. Data source: AppMagic Global Leaderboard: Game Publishers Something Major? Pokémon TCG Pocket is dominating! We're talking about 140M$ IAP & 26M Downloads in November. Just started on October 29th, crazy... Hypercasual Studio Rankings Out of 171,535 Creatives on iOS Top GEOs by Impression U.S: 26% Japan: 6% U.K: 5% S.Korea: 5% Brazil: 5% France: 4% Canada: 4% Turkey: 3% Saudi Arabia: 3% Top Ad Networks by Impression AppLovin: 35% Facebook: 19% Unity: 11% YouTube: 7% Mintegral: 7% Tiktok: 4% Out of 351,705 Creatives on Android Top GEOs by Impression India: 11% U.S: 7% Brazil: 6% Mexico: 6% Turkey: 5% S.Korea: 5% Indonesia: 5% Ukraine: 4% Top Ad Networks by Impression AppLovin: 37% YouTube: 17% Facebook: 17% AdMob: 9% Mintegral: 7% […]

Ömer Yakabagi December 5

Highlights

Mobile Game Leaders: October 2024

Global Leaderboard Major Differences: Top Studios: Azur Games remains in the top position but experienced a drop in downloads from 105 million in September to 99M in October. VOODOO moved to 2nd place in October, surpassing SayGames, with an increase in downloads from 62 to 73 million. New Players in the October List: Rocket Succeed Together: This studio entered the top 10, taking the 10th position in October with 39 million downloads, replacing Bravestars. XGame Global: Ranked 17th in October, a new addition. Mini Games: Calm & Relax carried! Hungry Studio: Entered the rankings in 19th place in October, replacing JindoBlu in September. Hypercasual Rankings Out of 132,000 Creatives on iOS Top GEOs by Impression U.S: 40% Japan: 7% U.K: 7% Australia: 5% France: 5% Canada: 5% Top Ad Networks by Impression Unity: 34% Fyber: 27% Facebook: 22% YouTube: 14% […]

Ömer Yakabagi November 6

Highlights

Mobile Game Leaders: September 2024

Seasonality hit UA hard. Most Publishers saw a dip in downloads as UA budgets get slashed in September. Higher CPI: Competition! E-commerce & Retail brands dominate the market with massive ad budgets, driving CPIs up & up. Shifting User Attention: Holiday Shopping - yaaay! Black Friday & Amazon Prime Days sound cool, right? There we go with the drop in engagement with gaming ads. Lower UA Budget: Q4 is mostly the lowest-budget quarter. Gaming advertisers feel the pinch, having to cut back on UA spending as costs peak. Publisher Response: Many shift focus from new installs to retention and monetization, emphasizing in-game events and promotions. However, TikTok and Meta have rolled out enhanced probabilistic matching features, and these new models are likely to drive ad spend up on these platforms in the coming months. Let's start with New Games & […]

Ömer Yakabagi October 12

Journal

Mobile Game Leaders: August 2024

The mobile gaming market in August 2024 is a mix of stability and change! Top games are holding their ground in Downloads & Revenues, but there are some interesting shifts with new titles entering the scene. While overall downloads have dipped a bit, smart monetization strategies are keeping revenues strong or even growing. Emerging games are making waves, showing the market's ability to adapt and grow. Let's dive into the top Pubs & Games to see the trends in mobile gaming. Trending Games - Top Free So, what? The ranking changes among these games reveal interesting trends in the mobile gaming market. Games that offer quick, engaging, and often social experiences seem to be climbing the ranks more significantly. Titles that introduce novel gameplay mechanics or capitalize on popular genres (like puzzles, racing, and action) also show strong performance. Moreover, […]

Ömer Yakabagi September 3

Reports

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