Data Shows Shopping Apps Still on Top as Gaming Gains Ground

According to Sensor Tower data for January 2026, shopping apps continued to dominate U.S. mobile ad spending, though their share dropped slightly year-over-year. Analysts suggest the early-year patterns could mirror full-year ad trends, offering insights into how marketers prioritize digital channels.

Shopping apps led with 16.4% of total app ad spending, a modest 8.4% decline from 2025. Health and wellness apps followed at 12.3%, holding steady seasonally. Meanwhile, gaming apps climbed to sixth place with an 8.1% share — a 42% year-on-year increase, marking one of the fastest growth rates across categories.

Financial Apps Rise, CPG Falls

New Year Shakeup in Advertising Priorities

The report also highlighted major reshuffling in ad spend among sectors: financial services apps surpassed consumer packaged goods (CPG) to claim the third-highest share of U.S. mobile app ad spending. The broader shift reflects advertisers chasing categories with higher user engagement and transactional potential.

Industry analysts note that mobile ads are increasingly being steered by audience reach rather than legacy budgets. Projections indicate that 53.8% of Americans will use mobile gaming apps in 2026—a figure now comparable to mobile shopping app usage.

However, shopping apps still attract roughly double the ad investment despite a similar audience size, highlighting a market imbalance that offers advertisers opportunities to penetrate the less-saturated gaming segment.

AI Advertising Emerges as 2026’s Wild Card

ChatGPT Ad Testing Could Reshape the Market

The rise of generative AI (GenAI) apps adds unpredictability to 2026’s ad landscape. OpenAI’s ChatGPT has begun testing ads within free and Go-tier subscriptions, with a full rollout expected later this month.

The company plans to adopt view-based pricing rather than click-based measurement, a shift that could disrupt traditional performance models across the ad industry.

Supporting metrics show massive growth for GenAI platforms:

  • U.S. time spent on AI assistant apps rose 411% year-on-year in October.
  • ChatGPT’s U.S. in-app purchase revenue jumped 185% over the same period.

These figures suggest that generative AI tools are becoming viable high-reach advertising environments, though still largely gated to major brands due to high entry costs — up to $200,000 per campaign during beta testing.

Key Takeaways for Advertisers

  • Gaming: Leverage rewarded video and immersive in-game formats to convert high user engagement into brand attention. Partnering on branded experiences within games offers sustained visibility.
  • Shopping: Focus on AI-driven personalisation and refined audience segmentation to retain cost efficiency amid fierce competition.
  • GenAI Apps: Monitor ad performance metrics closely and evaluate price-to-reach ratios before committing large budgets.

Summary

Shopping still leads U.S. app ad spending in 2026, but gaming’s rapid 42% growth signals emerging opportunity. With financial apps surging and GenAI advertising poised to disrupt traditional modeling, advertisers face a fast-evolving digital ecosystem where audience overlap and platform innovation will define the next stage of mobile marketing efficiency.