AI Pushes Apps Past Games in Consumer Spending in 2025

A landmark shift hit the mobile app market in 2025: for the first time, consumers spent more money on non-game apps than on games themselves. Much of that growth comes from the explosive popularity of apps that use artificial intelligence (AI) for a wide range of tasks, from photo editing and content creation to personal assistants and educational platforms.

For a long time, the gaming industry dominated app stores and generated the lion's share of revenue. But as AI technology has matured and made its way into everyday apps, the picture has begun to change. Users increasingly see value in apps that can automate routine tasks, offer personalized content and improve their productivity.

AI-powered apps offer a broad range of capabilities. Photo-editing apps, for example, use AI to automatically improve image quality, remove unwanted objects and even generate new images from text prompts. Other apps use AI to build personalized study programs, helping users learn new languages or pick up new skills. The rising popularity of AI chatbots such as ChatGPT has also contributed to higher app spending.

The shift has serious consequences for the mobile app industry. Game developers will have to find new ways to attract and retain users, possibly by building AI into their games to create more immersive, personalized play. Meanwhile, developers of non-game apps have enormous room to grow by offering users innovative AI-based solutions.

For users, this means even more useful and convenient AI apps for a wide variety of tasks will become available. But it is important to keep the potential risks of AI in mind, such as data privacy and algorithmic bias. Users should choose apps carefully and keep an eye on how their data is used.

In short, the rise in mobile app spending, driven by the popularity of AI, is an important signal that AI technology is becoming more deeply woven into our daily lives. This trend will likely continue, opening up new opportunities and challenges for developers and users alike.