Global mobile ad spends grows 14% to $336 billion in 2022, despite global macroeconomic downward trend. Will global mobile ad spend be affected in 2023? How will it evolve?

Key Insights

• Global mobile ad spend to grow by 14% in 2022
• 2% decline in consumer spending on apps in 2022
• 11% growth in app downloads in 2022

Economic situation expected to dampen consumer spending

Users are spending more time on apps than ever before. Over 4 trillion total hours on Android alone in 2022 and mobile ad spend will continue to grow to $362 billion. This represents a 7.5% year-on-year increase compared to 2022, half of the previous year's growth.



Mobile ad spending growth is hampered by the economy, which will also impact consumer spending as gamers have less disposable income to spend on their favourite games.

Non-gaming apps are expected to continue to attract significant cash, with entertainment and social media apps being the categories with the most spending and time spent.

App downloads & time spent in emerging markets are on the rise

Global consumer spending on apps fell by 2% in 2022, with Taiwan, Brazil, Hong Kong, & Mexico bucking the trend at 15%, 22%, 34% and 17%, respectively. Downloads jumped 11% last year with Pakistan seeing the highest jump at 35%.

The standout app categories are utility, entertainment and financial apps. More and more people are inclined to use their mobile devices to manage their daily lives. 



In addition, users spend a considerable amount of time on the app. Three different categories account for 50% of the time spent. They are communication (social media), short video (entertainment) and video sharing (entertainment) apps.

In gaming, the top categories are sandbox games such as Roblox and Minecraft. The amount of time consumers spent playing these games increased by 27%.