Sensor Tower's Q3 2021 Data Digest analyzes global and regional app download trends, noting the continued normalization of pandemic-driven mobile adoption. Key highlights include TikTok becoming the fifth app ever to reach 3 billion downloads, shifts in the US mobile shooter game market after Fortnite's removal, and rapid growth of sports betting apps in the US. The report covers top categories like Games, Utilities, Photo & Video, and Entertainment, with year-over-year trends and publisher rankings by downloads.
In 2021, global mobile app revenue reached $133B, up 19.7% Y/Y. TikTok led non-game revenue with $2.3B, while game spending hit $89.6B. Downloads stayed flat at 143.6B, with TikTok and Facebook leading installs.
SKAdNetwork reveals advertiser-publisher connections, showing Social and Gaming apps drive 92% of paid installs. Privacy thresholds cause conversion value nulls, impacting optimization. Advertisers must adapt campaign structures to overcome NOI decline and leverage limited data for LTV predictions.
The Nordics have high mobile usage, with increased app installs during the pandemic. Women dominate mobile gaming but men spend more. Poor UX and privacy concerns remain, though users welcome iOS 14 changes. Marketers should measure, invest in mobile, prioritize UX, and build trust.
App engagement is vital for retention and monetization. Key metrics include sessions, retention, and DAU/MAU. Strategies: effective onboarding, personalization, push notifications, and deep linking improve engagement and reduce churn.
ROX measures financial impact of customer experiences on campaigns, focusing on contextualized, personalized, and frictionless CX to boost engagement and LTV.
Programmatic advertising automates media buying using AI, enabling real-time ad sales and personalized targeting. It spans channels like display, video, and social, offering efficiency and lower costs.
Adjust has expanded store detection and verification across multiple app storefronts, making Store Type the primary dimension for identifying where an install originated rather than relying on platform or OS alone. For ad ops teams, this means campaign performance can now be analyzed at the store level across Huawei AppGallery, Xiaomi GetApps, Samsung Galaxy Store, Vivo Appstore, and Google Play variants, with independent verification of install origin. Newly detected stores are flagged in AppView with a direct route to configuration, and store-level data flows automatically into reporting, raw data, callbacks, and CSV exports, plus Conversion Rules via Store Rule conditions.
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.
Automotive advertisers are shifting budgets toward localized digital acquisition as domestic growth slows. In China, pre...
Breakout game launches are increasing, driven almost entirely by indie studios. 76 titles sold 500k+ paid units in their...
Sensor Tower’s 2026 game ad report shows ad ops must manage more creative volume, not just bigger budgets. Top US mobile...
Target’s 2026 back-to-school retail media campaign became more concentrated: impressions fell 66% YoY to 781M and partic...
The holiday retrospective shows three distinct ad ops plays. Coca-Cola doubled spend (+110%) and impressions rose 91%, c...
Mobile finance is outpacing broader app trends: global finance app downloads are projected at 8.9B in 2026 (+6% YoY), wi...