In 2023, daily spending across app stores and advertising will reach nearly $1.5 billion, raising the size of the mobile app economy to $500 billion that year. Among them, mobile advertising spending reached $362 billion, a year-on-year increase of 8%.

The small increase in user spending in the App Store is particularly concerning given the unprecedented downward trend the market has experienced in 2022, driven in large part by mobile gaming. While the outlook for games and apps is promising heading into 2024, user spending on the app side will continue to drive the majority of growth, something that was unforeseen 10 years ago.

Apps outpaced games, driving an 11% year-over-year rebound in user spending to $64 billion, more than six times the cumulative total since 2016. Social applications and the creator economy have created new monetization avenues beyond advertising. TikTok has laid the foundation for revenue growth through its “tip” mechanism for content creators, driving its full-cycle spending to more than $10 billion. Direct user monetization of social apps through in-app purchases will grow 150% to $1.3 billion in 2024 as competition intensifies. This increase in user spending is not coming from one industry, with industries such as entertainment, social media, health and fitness, and generative AI all seeing rapid growth over the past year.