AI App Spending Surpasses $1 Billion in 2024

Generative AI Fuels App Spending Growth

Global consumer expenditure on applications is projected to reach $150 billion in 2024. This represents a 13% increase compared to the previous year’s figures.

A recent “State of Mobile” report from Sensor Tower, a leading app intelligence provider, highlights the significant impact of generative AI on this growth. Sensor Tower acquired Data.ai, the original author of the report, in March of last year.

AI App Spending Surges

AI applications experienced a substantial rise in popularity throughout the past year. Consumer spending within this category increased by over 200% year-over-year.

This surge resulted in a total expenditure of nearly $1.1 billion on AI apps in 2024, including platforms such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and ByteDance’s Doubao.

Should this growth trajectory continue, the firm predicts that AI apps could break into the top 10 categories based on consumer spending within the next year.

Consistent Demand for AI

While the release of advanced AI models, like OpenAI’s GPT-4o last summer, contributed to record app revenue peaks, demand for AI apps remained consistently high throughout 2024.

Consumers dedicated almost 7.7 billion hours to utilizing AI applications during the year.

Furthermore, apps incorporating the term “AI” were downloaded a remarkable 17 billion times.

Rapid User Adoption

ChatGPT achieved 50 million monthly active users at a pace exceeding that of Temu, Disney+, and YouTube Music.

This demonstrates a continuing and expanding consumer interest in both AI-powered applications and those integrating AI features.

Other Notable App Category Trends

Several other app categories also exhibited significant movement in 2024, including streaming, cryptocurrency, e-commerce, and financial technology (fintech).

Despite increases in in-app revenue and downloads, streaming apps experienced a slight decrease in user engagement.

Crypto and E-commerce Gains

Cryptocurrency applications, such as Binance (ranked No. 6) and Tonkeeper (ranked No. 9), entered the top 10 finance apps by download numbers in 2024.

E-commerce apps Temu and Shein secured the No. 1 and No. 2 positions, respectively, within the retail subgenre. This success is attributed to their expansion into Europe, Latin America, and Asia.

Financial applications maintained double-digit year-over-year growth in time spent and approached 7.5 billion downloads, an 8% increase from 2023.

Milestone Achievements

In 2024, four games and one app surpassed $1 billion in cumulative consumer spending. These include Last War, Whiteout Survival, Dungeon & Fighter, Brawl Stars, and WeTV.

Report Availability

The complete report, offering detailed analysis of the iOS App Store and Google Play, is available on Sensor Tower’s website.

It’s important to note that the report does not include data from third-party app stores in regions like China.