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Digital Advertising Insights · Gaming Insights · Retail Media Insights · Mobile App Insights · Sensor Tower · February 2026
Q4 Digital Market Index: App, Ads & Web Data
Our quarterly post-mortem on the digital economy is here — and there's a lot to say about Q4 2025. From AI's industry-spanning takeover to Europe's status as a growth leader, we're diving into the mobile, app, ad and web data that you need to understand a rapidly-evolving landscape.
The numbers are in, and they tell a story of a digital economy in the midst of a structural shift. Q4 2025 saw significant gains across the digital ecosystem with record-breaking digital ad spend of +13% and IAP revenue growth of +9.6% year-over-year (YoY), as well as a massive jump in Generative AI across all data sets. Our Q4 Digital Market Index report is packed with data across mobile apps, web traffic, digital advertising, and retail media.
Here are some of the highlights:
AI Continues to Dominate the App Economy
The headline story of Q4 2025 is Artificial Intelligence. Generative AI apps surpassed 1.1 billion downloads in a single quarter, up 89% YoY. IAP revenue for the category skyrocketed 212%, reaching $1.7 billion. ChatGPT, the most-downloaded app globally, is rapidly encroaching on TikTok as the app with the highest revenue in the United States. If trends continue, it could surpass the popular video-sharing app as early as H1 2026. Meanwhile, 64% of Gen AI users now access these tools exclusively via mobile apps, marking a seven-percentage-point jump in only one year. ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude each saw their app-only audiences surge by 13 percentage points YoY.
The Gaming Market Starts to Plateau
Global in-app purchase (IAP) revenue grew 9.6% YoY to $43.4 billion, but beneath that positive trend is a starker reality: non-gaming apps drove the bulk of that growth (+18%), while games only received a paltry 1.5% YoY boost. Furthermore, game downloads fell 10.7% YoY, with every top genre posting negative numbers. Lifestyle and Racing experienced the worst declines, falling 20% each. The bright spots? Block Blast maintained aggressive growth with a 46% YoY increase, while Roblox surged by 33% YoY.
The Web Is Changing Too
YouTube has officially surpassed Google in total web visits in the UK, India, Japan, and France. This highlights the continuance of a fundamental global shift toward video-first information seeking. AI referral traffic, while still under 1% of total web visits, grew 124% YoY in the US and over 160% in the UK and France. Chatbots are quickly becoming meaningful discovery and traffic channels.
Furthermore, in the US, traditional Organic Search is losing its edge — growing just 3% YoY, the weakest performance of any channel studied. Meanwhile, Paid (+14%) and Social (+13%) are both posting double-digit gains, a clear signal that relying on SEO alone isn't enough anymore. Brands that want to reach new audiences need to lean harder into paid strategies and start building an AI-referral presence before competitors do.
The bottom line? The Q4 2025 data makes one thing unmistakably clear: AI is no longer a trend. It's the new infrastructure of the digital economy. From downloads to revenue to web traffic to ad spend, it's reshaping every channel simultaneously.
For brands, publishers, and marketers trying to stay ahead of what's next, the full Q4 2025 Digital Market Index is essential reading. Download it here.