Indian users spent an additional 68 billion hours on entertainment apps and 50 billion hours more on social media in 2024 compared to the previous year, making India one of the fastest-growing mobile app markets in the world, according to new research from AI performance advertising firm Moloco. Gaming dominated user activity with a 34% share of total time spent in apps, growing 11% year-on-year, while generative AI emerged as the fastest-growing category, recording a staggering 669% surge in usage.
The study, Performance Through Independence: Unlocking Incremental App Growth Beyond Google and Meta, conducted with Sensor Tower and Singular, highlights how India’s app economy continues to accelerate even as engagement slows in developed markets such as the US, UK, Germany, and Japan.
Advertising returns stronger outside big tech
“Too many advertisers are still over-indexing on Google and Meta. The biggest returns we are seeing are happening outside big tech,” said Tom Shadbolt, Senior Insights Manager at Moloco. The report underscores the growing role of the independent app ecosystem, which now reaches more than two billion daily active users worldwide—a scale that rivals Instagram and TikTok combined.
Despite shifting consumer behaviour, 88% of mobile app advertising dollars globally remain concentrated with Google and Meta, the report found. Yet advertisers who diversified their spending to include independent apps saw financial returns improve by as much as 214% (Day 30 Return on Ad Spend).
India leads the shift in consumer behaviour
For India, the findings reveal a dramatic shift in how users are spending their mobile time. While engagement with sports apps fell slightly by 130 million hours, users gravitated heavily toward entertainment, gaming, and generative AI.
“India is one of the fastest-growing mobile app markets globally, and our data clearly shows a dramatic shift in user behaviour—particularly the explosive rise of generative AI usage and the continued strength of gaming,” said Siddharth Jhawar, Country Manager, Moloco India.
With in-app purchases and subscription revenues rising 25% in 2024 to $70.5 billion globally, Moloco projects that consumer mobile app revenue will surpass gaming revenue within the next two years. For advertisers, the message is clear: India is not just a high-growth app market—it is the growth engine for the next phase of mobile advertising.