Time flies with great content! Renew in to keep enjoying all our premium content.
Prime
AI chatbot apps record gigantic growth as new-age tech takes shape
According to the report, generative AI apps exploded onto the scene in late 2022, with interest in the technology skyrocketing after the release of ChatGPT.
Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot applications such as ChatGPT recorded the highest growth in consumer usage and spending in 2024, signalling accelerated adoption of the new-age tech concept, even as the overall mobile app market continued with its recovery trend after a year-long slowdown in 2022.
The State of Mobile 2025 report, published by mobile analytics platform Sensor Tower (formerly data.ai), shows that the download rate of AI chatbot apps more than doubled during the year, growing by 112 percent to hit 1.2 billion downloads globally, while consumer spending within the sub-genre jumped 209 percent to $1.1 billion (Sh142.1 billion).
The report, which predicts that the pace of growth could see apps in the category rank in the top 10 globally by consumer spending within a year, also shows that consumer time spent on AI chatbot apps more than tripled during the year to hit over 7.7 billion hours.
“No sub-genre built their user base more than AI chatbots, which added 635 million more downloads in 2024 compared to 2023. The category was clearly appealing to users after download as well, with huge gains in time spent and IAP (in-app purchase) revenue,” notes the report.
“Time spent growth in AI chatbot apps even outpaced the downloads, with more than 300 percent year-on-year growth. Consumers spent more than 7.7 billion hours in apps like Character AI and ChatGPT.”
According to the report, generative AI apps exploded onto the scene in late 2022, with interest in the technology skyrocketing after the release of ChatGPT.
Thereafter, the report says, other competitors quickly tried to grab a slice of the market, and IAP revenue from AI chatbot and AI art generators climbed from $30 million (Sh3.9 billion) in 2022 to $445 million (Sh57.5 billion) in 2023, and eventually to $1.1 billion (Sh142.1 billion) in 2024.
“While ChatGPT is the clear leader with roughly 40 percent of global generative AI app consumer spend and 23 percent of downloads in 2024, there has been plenty of space for other apps to emerge. Sixteen different generative AI apps reached at least $10 million (Sh1.3 billion) in IAP revenue in 2024, and 25 had more than 10 million downloads.”
Streaming stays top
On IAP revenue, AI apps’ growth rate was followed by that of video editing software apps, whose consumer spending grew by 59 percent to $1.2 billion (Sh155.04 billion).
Film and television streaming remained the market leader in consumer spending with an annual total of $11.98 billion (Sh1.56 trillion), albeit growing at a slower pace of 31 percent, and was followed by social media apps whose revenue jumped 29 percent to $11.8 billion (Sh1.52 trillion).
Other top revenue attractors were dating apps, which hit $5.3 billion (Sh684.8 billion) during the year, books and comics apps ($4.2 billion/Sh542.6 billion), music and podcasts ($3.5 billion/Sh452.2 billion), cloud storage ($3.1 billion/Sh400.5 billion) and sports entertainment ($1.5 billion/Sh193.8 billion).
“Streaming apps tend to monetise through subscriptions, and the space remains very competitive with nine different apps accounting for at least three percent of the overall streaming revenue (and none above 15 percent). Social media, on the other hand, is dominated by TikTok and YouTube, which alone account for more than 70 percent of the sub-genre's consumer spending,” the report says.
“TikTok in particular has revolutionised non-game monetisation, offering in-app purchases that allow users to tip creators or promote their content.”
Billions of hours
In terms of app downloads, the social media category led the pack with 5.6 billion new downloads, up just a one percent compared to 2023, followed by the film and television streaming category, whose downloads grew seven percent to 3.4 billion.
On overall time spent by users, social media led again with 2.4 trillion hours followed distantly by social messaging apps like WhatsApp, where users spent a total of 606.6 billion hours.
“Mobile users spent nearly 2.4 trillion hours on social media apps in 2024 across iOS and Android devices, up six percent year-on-year. This was equivalent to 6.6 billion hours per day, or roughly an average of 50 minutes for every person on Earth,” the report states.
The report further notes that creative categories such as graphics and design as well as photo and video are particularly appealing to younger users as are entertainment and social networking apps, while productivity, shopping, health, fitness, and medical apps tend to appeal to older users.
