Summary
Mintegral's 2026 Global Non-Gaming App Trends Report offers deep insights into non-gaming app performance across genres including Entertainment, E-Commerce, Utilities, and AI Chat. It combines global market intelligence with granular platform-level data to help developers, marketers, and publishers navigate the competitive app ecosystem. The report provides a strategic roadmap covering OS-level revenue dynamics, automated bidding benchmarks, and key trends such as AI reshaping growth, new breakout categories, and differences between iOS and Android monetization.
It aims to help stakeholders scale profitably into 2026. Download is available upon submitting details like name, country, company, and interests.
You Might Also Like
TikTokTikTok Advertising Blog: Find Product Updates, Insights & Tips
TikTok for Business is promoting tiered first-30-day ad credit incentives for new self-serve SMB advertisers: spend $100 get $100, $500 get $500, or $1,500 get $1,500 plus 1-to-1 expert onboarding support, with a headline entry offer of 50% off first-month spend up to $200 and matching credits up to $6,000. Credits are applied within 7 days of hitting the highest threshold or after the 30-day accumulation window. Eligibility excludes agency, Business Center, and TikTok Shop accounts, and limits one ad account per new TikTok For Business account. For ad ops teams, these terms dictate budget pacing, account structure, and credit-expiry planning.
TikTokTikTok Advertising Blog: Find Product Updates, Insights & Tips
This TikTok for Business landing page promotes a limited-period new-advertiser incentive program offering up to USD 6,000 in matched ad credits. Three self-serve tiers are presented: 50% off first 30-day spend (up to $200), dollar-for-dollar match up to $500, and match up to $6,000. A separate headline offer advertises Spend $100/Get $100, Spend $500/Get $500, and Spend $1,500/Get $1,500 plus 1-to-1 expert onboarding support. Registration requires email or phone sign-up with 2-step verification. Eligibility is restricted to new SMB self-serve accounts, excluding agency, Business Center, and TikTok Shop accounts; credits post within 7 days of hitting the highest threshold or after the 30-day window.
AppsFlyerCreative optimization: Why your best video ad fails as a static image
AppsFlyer’s 2026 creative data shows video and static image ads reward opposite creative qualities, so ad ops teams should plan, budget, and test them separately. Video spend is concentrating: gaming’s top 2% of video creatives captured 60.7% of spend, up from 53.5%, while image spend spread out. Top spenders are testing far more variations, widening the testing gap. Action/Strategy and Puzzle/Lifestyle show format-specific tone and social-proof reversals; Finance is the exception. Teams should use AI-assisted variation, analyze video winners deeply, keep broad image testing, and measure performance at attribute level.
AdjustJapan’s finance app growth in 2026 | Adjust
Japan's finance app category is outperforming, with H1 2026 installs up 8% YoY and sessions up 40%—nearly 5x the install growth and well ahead of global figures (5% and 29%). Stock trading is the standout subvertical: installs +90% YoY and average session length climbing to 11.7 minutes, driven by NISA reforms and a retail investor resurgence. Retention is improving across the full 30-day curve (D1 17% to 19%, D30 7% to 8%). For ad ops teams, the takeaway is clear: prioritize measurement depth, re-engagement, and channel-level quality over top-of-funnel volume alone.
SensorTowerTop 10 Worldwide Mobile Games By Revenue and Downloads in September 2026
September mobile gaming softened overall but delivered clear live-ops wins. Global consumer spending hit $6.13B, down 7% MoM, with the US at 28.7%, China iOS 15.7%, and Japan 12.4%. Downloads reached 3.56B, down 5.2%, led by India at 16.2%. ROBLOX topped downloads and revenue growth; Honor of Kings stayed strong via seasonal content; Candy Crush and Pokémon GO used music, celebrity, and event-driven engagement. For ad ops, prioritize event-aligned UA/retargeting, IP collaborations, seasonal battle passes, and localized creatives for US/India/Brazil. Monitor launch spikes from Bus Fever Party!, Honor of Kings Chess, and Brain Puzzle 3 to time bids and creative refreshes.
AppsFlyerCracking the 2026 Holiday Season: A Data-Backed Playbook for Marketing Leaders
Q4 2026 planning should treat peak shopping as a compressed event, not a week. Black Friday/Cyber Monday purchase lift runs 2–3x install lift, so ad ops must schedule by daypart and hour. Singles Day is not global: Brazil, UAE and Spain show real lift, while US/France barely react. CPI spikes hardest in supposedly cheap markets—Spain’s CPI rose nearly 50%. Remarketing already drives 65–92% of non-organic spend and rises during peak. Deep linking is critical: deep-linked users are ~2x more likely to purchase and spend nearly 3x more. Benchmark market CPI, shift budget to remarketing, and connect every entry point.
MintegralHoliday Advertising Guide for Non-Gaming Apps in 2026
Mintegral’s non-gaming creative data shows holiday competition builds unevenly. Volume rose 16.1% from September to December and another 11.6% in January, so Q4 and Q1 both matter. Test focused creative in quiet September–October, then scale winning concepts in November–December. Category paths diverge: Utilities, Social, and Education grew fastest (Utilities +45.1%); Business lagged; E-Commerce was only moderate. Regional priorities differ—Southeast Asia favors Business and native ads, while Europe, LatAm, and the Middle East lean E-Commerce and interstitial. Interstitial and rewarded video dominate; playable remains under 1%. January is a new window, with Social ending March +37.1%. Ad ops should plan by category, region, and format.
AdjustHalloween app trends: Insights for your 2026 campaign | Adjust
Adjust's Halloween 2025 data across six weeks shows the holiday window opens well before October 31 and differs by category and market. Entertainment installs peaked the weekend before Halloween (up 42–44% vs. summer baseline), with OTT/streaming and video content installs up 120% on October 25 and 300% YoY. Photo and video sessions instead spiked on Halloween night itself (+6% global vs. the four prior Fridays; Canada +15%, Germany +13%, U.K. +11%, U.S. +9%, Mexico +7%). Single global send dates miss market-level peaks, so ad ops should time creative, push, and budget shifts per market—especially in Mexico, where activity runs through Día de los Muertos.
More from Mintegral
Why In-App, not MFA, is the Advertising Solution Made for Advertisers
MFA sites exploit programmatic buying by attracting low-intent clicks and inflating viewability/CPM metrics, so spend ca...
Why Financial Services Marketers Need to Look Beyond Downloads
Financial services marketers must stop treating downloads and CPI as success. In Türkiye, 85% smartphone penetration and...
Holiday Advertising Guide for Gaming Apps in 2026
Mintegral’s 2026 holiday guide shows Q4 gaming creative volume rising 12% from September to December, so testing must ha...
Holiday Advertising Guide for Non-Gaming Apps in 2026
Mintegral’s non-gaming creative data shows holiday competition builds unevenly. Volume rose 16.1% from September to Dece...
Retargeting: How to Reactivate Three Different Types of User
Retargeting spend is rising—AppsFlyer reports $31B and 29% of app marketing spend in 2025, up from 25%—because UA costs ...
Ad Platforms Are Like LLMs. Which Frontier Model Are You Running On?
Ad platforms are evolving from single-signal networks to integrated 'multimodal' systems, mirroring the LLM-to-LMM leap....