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In-App Advertising Market Reached $400 Billion in 2025

The sector saw 10.8% growth last year as software development kits became the primary tool for ad targeting.

Updated on Oct. 6, 2026 in Advertising

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The global in-app advertising market expanded to $400 billion in 2025, driven by software development kits that circumvent traditional browser-based tracking. AI Illustration. Upload story photo >

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The global in-app advertising market grew to $400 billion in 2025, a 10.8% increase compared to the prior year. This growth was driven by the dominance of software development kits, which now serve as the critical control point for reaching consumers within isolated app environments.

Why it matters

Traditional web-based tracking methods like cookies fail within apps, forcing a reliance on independent software development kits to collect first-party signals. Furthermore, ad-supported revenue is increasingly vital to offset the costs of scaling artificial intelligence products.

The in-app advertising market reached $400 billion in 2025, representing a 10.8% growth year-over-year. Meanwhile, Google, Meta, and Amazon maintained control over 70-75% of global online advertising spend.

The players

AppLovin

AppLovin is an American mobile technology company that provides a platform for app developers to grow their businesses through marketing and analytics tools.

Google

Google is a global technology company specializing in internet-related services, including search, cloud computing, and advertising technology.

Meta

Meta is the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, operating one of the world's largest digital advertising networks.

Amazon

Amazon is a multinational technology corporation that has significantly expanded its influence in the global digital advertising market.

The details

Independent software development kits now reach 44% of Android downloads and 31% of iOS downloads, allowing adtech platforms to maintain footprints despite platform-level restrictions like Apple's 35% ATT opt-in rate. AppLovin notably generated $5.48 billion in advertising revenue in 2025 following its $1.05 billion acquisition of MoPub.

Timeline

  1. The in-app advertising market reached a previous baseline in 2017.

  2. The baseline for tracking the decline in AI inference costs was 2023.

  3. The in-app advertising market hit $400 billion in 2025.

  4. Google retired its Privacy Sandbox in October 2025.

Market Landscape

The reliance on independent SDKs marks a pivot away from browser-based tracking toward isolated app ecosystems, following the retirement of Google's Privacy Sandbox. This shift forces adtech platforms to prioritize owned distribution footprints to compete against the platform dominance of Google, Meta, and Amazon.

App publishers now receive $50-55 of every $100 spent by advertisers, a revenue split that directly dictates the availability of free, ad-supported apps for consumers. As AI inference costs have dropped 99% since 2023, shoppers can expect more free, ad-supported AI features to enter the mobile app market.

The takeaway

As adtech becomes the backbone for financing AI development, consumers should expect deeper integration of advertising into formerly private agentic commerce tools. The ability of independent platforms to capture user signals will continue to define the profitability of the free app ecosystem.

Further reading

For more on the shifts in digital marketing, visit our Advertising section.

Source note: This article includes information reported by Economic Times.

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