Yes, you really are seeing more in-app purchases than ever, and the reasons why are both fascinating and scary

We all know about in-app purchases, whether it's for a subscription , a loot box, or to remove ads. They have been a fast-growing presence online and in our favorite apps for a while.

The thing is, if you've noticed in-app payment options becoming more prevalent, or found yourself paying for them more often recently, then you're part of a fascinating change currently happening in app stores.

Regular apps now rule

Games fall behind

In-app purchases (IAP) have been a staple in mobile games for a decade, and it was primarily where they were encountered and where the most money was made.

However, this changed in 2025, when in-app revenue from non-game apps beat game app spending for the first time, according to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower.

In its 2026 State of Mobile report , data shows that in 2025, in-app purchase revenue from games reached $81.8 billion, while in-app purchase revenue from non-game apps reached $85.6 billion, a 21% increase over 2024's performance.

The company's wider data shows revenue increases came from every subgenre, with social media and movies and TV categories each growing revenue by more than $2 billion in 2025.

However, the biggest winner, growing by a whopping $3.5 billion year-on-year, is generative AI apps.

Further evidence of how dramatically in-app purchases have transformed non-game app revenue is found elsewhere in the report.

In 2015, 46 non-games managed to reach $10 million in revenue. In 2025, that number has shot up to 778 non-game apps.

More spending

But why?

More people are spending more money on non-game apps, but why?

To understand, I put the question to Jonathan Briskman, director of market insights at Sensor Tower, and if you've been feeling more comfortable with in-app payments recently, you'll want to hear this.

Briskman said there are three main factors why in-app purchase revenue has increased for non-games in particular.

Apps are becoming more sophisticated with their monetization strategies on mobile. Five+ years ago, the subscription model was the primary source of revenue for nearly all apps (excluding mobile games).

Not only has subscription revenue soared in recent years, but apps have begun supplementing revenue with creative one-time purchases.

It's not your imagination.

App developers and companies are finding new ways to encourage you to spend money, and are also getting better at understanding what works when it comes to the features or benefits worth putting behind a paywall.

Briskman continued:

Consumers are also getting more comfortable with in-app payments. Since they spend so much time on their phones and many use Apple Pay, Google Pay, Venmo, or PayPal, they are increasingly used to making payments on their phones.

This has resulted in a shift of payments from places like web to mobile. For example, we've seen a 162% increase in global streaming IAP revenue between 2020 and 2025.

Some of the revenue growth is from increased demand (and revenue) for streaming, but some is also explained by a shift of consumers subscribing on mobile rather than the web.

It's hard not to interpret this as the sheer proliferation of in-app purchases and subscriptions has essentially started to desensitize us.

The increased revenue suggests we've accepted that apps most often come with some kind of payment system, whether it's a one-off, occasional, or regularly recurring one.

Briskman's final point ties all this together and is arguably the main reason why we're not only more comfortable spending on apps, but also why we're more accepting of in-app payments in general.

People are spending more time on mobile than ever before. Consumers spent 5.3 trillion hours on mobile globally across iOS and Google Play devices, up 29% since 2021.

People have become more comfortable spending their time on mobile, and now they are spending more of their wallets there as well. Along with the increased time spent on mobile is deeper engagement.

People are getting more value out of their apps, and new content and features (including AI-powered ones) encourage users to pay a premium.

No signs of stopping

AI at the front

Seeing hot trends in app stores and hearing the reasoning behind them gives an interesting insight into how we're all interacting with the apps on our phones.

Sensor Tower's research also highlights why we're going to be seeing a lot more apps with AI, and why we should not be surprised by a continued emphasis on AI from developers and manufacturers.

Downloads of AI apps doubled over 2024 to 3.8 billion in 2025, and revenue from them tripled to more than $5 billion. Sensor Tower notes that AI assistants dominate the category, with ChatGPT being the most popular.

Interestingly, the adoption of ChatGPT, Gemini, and the problematic Grok AI was driven by image generation features. In the US, more than 200 million people have accessed a generative AI assistant, and 110 million did it on mobile.

When revenue triples for one particular segment alone in just a year, we should expect a lot more emphasis on it going forward, and a lot more opportunities to use generative AI to be presented to us .

For a price, of course.

Mobile's monetization-first era

Apps want your attention

Sensor Tower says mobile is now in a "monetization-first era," which neatly explains the increasing amount of options to spend money on apps better than anything else.

The report adds that "capturing attention is the clearest path to monetization, retention, and long-term growth," so it's clear the analysts expect more apps to push engagement even harder, in an effort to encourage us to spend money.

Whether you want them or not, AI apps are the ones making big money on mobile at the moment, so AI will be key in 2026 and beyond, as Sensor Tower states, generative AI apps "defined mobile in 2025."

Wallets at the ready, then, for the coming year. Except now, you know it's not just you. There really are more opportunities to spend money in apps.

Sensor Tower's 2026 State of Mobile report is filled with data on app usage, trends, and insights into the market, and can be viewed here .