Monopolists have captured the mobile market, leaving competitors with only 8% of revenue

Monopolists have captured the mobile market, leaving competitors only 8% of revenue

Sensor Tower once again rolled out a gigantic report of 68! pages about the trends 2026 of the year.

The conclusions are sometimes sad. Here's what I highlighted:

1. the monopoly has reached its peak

The saddest part of the report: 1% top publishers take 92% revenue and 81% all downloads.

The remaining 99% developers share among themselves 8% income. This is briefly about adequate competition in the market.

2. Installs are falling, but revenues are growing.

Last year's trend: users download less often, but spend more on in-game purchases.

The market's main focus now is on retaining and monetizing the current audience, rather than spending the entire budget on attracting new ones.

TOP-5 genres by installs: strategies, simulators, arcades, shooters, RPGs, and casinos.

3. games are losing to social networks

Spending in non-gaming apps has surpassed game development for the first time. Now games compete not with similar «match-three» apps, but with TikTok, YouTube, and AI apps.

Hence the shift in mobile app creatives.

Advertising converts better if it looks like regular content: short videos, player recommendations, or blogger integrations.

4. where paid traffic is running

In social networks, they are growing Instagram и Facebook, but TikTok и YouTube they have lost some share of impressions.

Among in-app advertising, the leaders are AdMob, AppLovin и Mintegral.

Puzzle and strategy games spend the most on advertising, but casinos, sports, and racing games surpass them in profitability.

A telling example: the share of advertising expenses for casino games in the USA was 10.41%, while the revenue share was 21.61%.

5. Geography and demographics

User spending is growing fastest in Turkey, Mexico, Thailand, and India. Yandex, with its Alice, entered Turkey at the perfect time.

Player profile: 36 years old, gender balance 50/50. They enter games several times a day but play in short sessions.