As always, data in this report is based on a significant slice of Singular’s data:

• 
  Billions of dollars of spend
• 
  Trillions 
of impressions
• 
  Billions 
of installs
• 
  Tens of billions of clicks

Author: John Koetsier
Data scientist: Gaston Laterza

Global ad spend trends are up

We are back in the black: after being down QoQ in Q1 — not surprising following the holiday quarter — ad spend is up significantly in Q2 2025.

Year over year, we’re seeing modest but still significant growth of 7.6%.

Quarter over quarter the numbers are more impressive:

• Up 45% globally QoQ
• Up 30% on Android
• Up 51.2% on iOS

There’s strong growth quarter over quarter across almost all of the globe:

Ad spend growth by region: Q1 >> Q2

The bulk of the increase in absolute terms is in the United States even though the percentage growth is not as high as some of the other regions. 

But the strongest proportional growth is coming from Tier 2 markets, both East and West, showing emerging regional investment in mobile user acquisition. 

This includes our “Rest of the World” category, which is up 38.6%.

ATT and IDFA availability

Almost everyone either opts out of tracking via the App Tracking Transparency prompt or is not eligible for even being asked, like children or managed devices.

Global opt-in rates

Only 6.26% of people globally opted into tracking:

Global opt-in

Opt-in rates by vertical

Opting out of ATT dominates every vertical, but especially Shopping and Travel:

• Shopping: 97.3% opt out
• Travel: 97.8% opt out

Opt-in rates by vertical

Utilities has the highest opt-in rate, at 34.2%, while Gaming is also high at 21.68%. (Gaming also has a lot of kids installing new games, which explains the rather large opt-out percentage here.)

Interestingly, both Education and Finance have significantly higher-than-average opt-in rates as well.

Clearly, for sensitive use cases like payments, travel plans, and purchases, people see less benefit to opt in to tracking. Gaming’s higher opt-in probably reflects both a value exchange  along the lines of rewarded ads and personalized experiences and a younger, less privacy-focused audience.

Key metrics and trends: CPI, CTR, CPM, IPM

Big picture

Everything was up in Q2 2025: CPI, CPM, CTR, and IPM.

All platforms, all verticals

CPI by platform

When you differentiate by platform, it’s clear that CPIs really only changed this past quarter on iOS.

Change per platform:

• Android CPIs: up 1.6%
• iOS CPIs: up 35.4%

Obviously there’s a massive change on iOS. See below for more details in our CPI Deep Dive, but briefly fintech, gaming, and retail user acquisition was significantly more expensive in Q2 than it was in Q1.

CPM by platform

There’s good news for app publishers who monetize via ads.

While CPIs only went up 15% on average, CPMs went up 28.4%. That means your cost of user acquisition rose marginally, but your opportunity for monetization increased almost twice as much.

CPM: Android vs iOS

But they didn’t go up evenly:

• Android CPMs: up 9%
• iOS CPMs: up 50.7%

That looks unfortunate for Android, but if you look at the CPI data above, Android apps are actually comparatively better off: CPMs are up 9% and CPIs are up only 1.6%. 

For iOS, CPIs went up a hefty 35.4%, and while CPMs were up over 50%, they didn’t rise by nearly the multiple that Android CPMs did.

CTR by platform

CTR saw the biggest change in the key big metrics: up a massive 38.6%. 

Building on a QoQ jump in Q1 of 17%, this is yet another nail in the coffin of CTR as a metric, at least in the way we once used it. It still has usability, but now you can only safely use it as a very relative comparison between similar campaigns with similar ad types.

Looking deeper, however, this isn’t about CTR per se.

Rather, it’s about iOS. And primarily 1 vertical.

Check out CTR on Android versus iOS for the first half of this year:

Specifically the massive jump in CTR is about Gaming.

If we just look at iOS and segment by Vertical, we see that Gaming CTRs basically exploded in Q2 2025. 

(Travel rocketed up too, but then dropped off. It’s a much smaller vertical than Gaming, so wouldn’t have impacted the overall iOS CTR rates nearly as much. I’m also checking if there was a glitch in the data here, or 1 large advertiser who skewed the results.)

Veterans in mobile marketing know what’s going on:

1. Games use a lot of playables and hybrid video/playable/end card ads
2. iOS offers SKOverlay: a lightweight App Store app listing view right inside an ad in 3 varieties:
   1. Compact banner version (bottom of the screen)
   2. Larger card modal (almost full screen)
   3. App Clip version
3. You can tap away from a playable, but it’s often hard
4. Early taps, or taps that miss the X, often result in a “click”
5. This can happen multiple times in a single ad unit
6. Voila: CTR rates are through the roof

Here’s an example of SKOverlay (the A version) in an image from Liftoff:

Android Utilities … CTR oddity

While iOS Gaming is the bulk of the change, there’s an interesting thing going on for Android, specifically in Utilities, as well.

Most verticals are fairly normal for CTR on Android. Gaming is 3X to 5X higher than other verticals, but not off-the-charts higher.

• Android Gaming CTR: ~5%
• Android Shopping CTR: ~1%
• Android Entertainment CTR: ~2%

But Utilities starts the quarter high, at 17.7%, and finishes much higher, at 25.4%. 

(Note: Utilities on iOS has the highest ATT opt-in rates, and Utilities are sometimes trojan horses for data collection or other shall we say grey hat activities … so there could be something more “interesting” going on here.)

IPM by platform

IPM was up across the board in Q2, suggesting that ad networks, advertisers, and app publishers are getting better at putting the right ads with the right messages in front of the right people.

By platform, this increase parses out to:

• Android IPMs: up 7.3%
• iOS IPMs: up 11.3%

Overall IPM per platform in Q2 was:

• Android: 2.75
• iOS: .979

IPM is a good indicator of advertising efficiency and user experience. The higher the installs per thousand ads shown, the lighter ad load is required to deliver similar results for advertisers.

The fact is that Android ads are driving almost 3X more installs per impression than iOS. (And yes, this relationship holds even if we look at a specific richer country, the United States.) 

That means 1 of 3 things:

1. Ads are less efficient on iOS
2. iOS users are more adblind, or resistant to marketing
3. Or … both

It’s worth noting that Android advertisers still have access to behavioral signals from device identifiers (GAID) while iOS advertisers have to depend on less reliable signals.

All of that said, while iOS has lower IPM, Apple customers often have higher LTV, so advertisers essentially are forced to accept lower marketing efficiency in exchange for higher financial returns.

Key KPIs by country tier and vertical

At Singular, we look at data by regions:

Note that this is Android-only data except for N/A, which is global iOS data.

High-level insights: verticals

• Utilities
  Of all verticals, Utilities has both the highest CTR and the best IPM. With cheap CPI and strong CPM, apps in this space are efficient value generators.
• Travel
  Travel apps tend to have high IPM and high CVR. That indicates strong intent-driven installs: people get these apps with immediate action in mind.
• Financial
  Fintech is a tough space to grow. CPIs are sky-high, and IPMs are tiny. Acquiring financial users is expensive and has lower conversion rates.
• Shopping/retail
  Shopping apps have the second highest CPI among verticals and unimpressive IPM, meaning this is a competitive growth space with expensive acquisition. Shopping CVR is lower than most service-oriented verticals, but slightly higher than Financial. Upshot: Shopping ads attract clicks but convert only moderately … there’s a lot of digital window shoppers.

High-level insights: geos

• USA
  Expensive but strong conversion efficiency: highest CPM and high CPI, but also the best IPM.
• Tier 1 West (Canada, UK, France, Germany)
  High cost, but weaker conversion efficiency than the USA.
• China
  Lots of volume, but low conversion rates with very low CPM … but also the lowest IPM.
• Tier 2 West: (Australia, Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Poland)
  Low CPM but strong IPM, so we’re seeing efficient installs at lower cost, potentially making these good ROI markets.
• Japan
  High CPIs with mid-level IPMs make Japan a balanced but premium market.
• Tier 2 East: Taiwan, Indonesia, Turkey, Thailand, Philippines
  Low CPI and strong IPM make these countries very cost-effective growth markets.

Deeper dive: CPI 

CPI by region

As you’d expect, CPI is highest in the United States. Japan and Tier 1 West countries are almost equivalent, followed by China. 

What changed this quarter?

• CPI is up 14.7% across the board in the United States
• CPI is up 21.1% in Tier 1 West countries
• CPI is down 52.9% in China

CPI by app vertical

It’s relatively unrevealing to look at CPI by app vertical when you include Financial in the mix: fintech dominates the chart and the other categories are almost invisible.

What this reveals, however, is that fintechs will pay more than 5X higher for new customers than any other vertical, making finance an incredibly rewarding vertical for ad monetization.

If we remove fintech to get better insight into the other categories, here’s what we see:

• Shopping is expensive
• Gaming is expensive

And, in general, iOS is vastly more expensive than Android … with the very significant exception of the Entertainment category.

CPI by app vertical, without fintech

The real story is in the changes, however, and they’re almost entirely driven by user acquisition in the United States:

• Fintech CPIs jumped $35, increasing 78%
• Gaming CPIs jumped even more, percentage-wise: 166%
• Shopping CPIs were up 67%

CPI by game genre

Finding new players for Music games on Android is challenging, with the highest UA prices on the platform, followed by Shooting and Card Games.

On the iOS side, Card, Lifestyle, and Simulation lead the way:

More key metrics by region: CPI, CTR, CPM, IPM

At Singular, we look at data by regions:

Note: all of the below data is based on Android only.

CPI by region

CPM by region

CTR by region

IPM by region

Monetization trends: iOS vs Android

Android is the platform of scale. iOS is the platform of revenue.

That’s an oversimplification, of course, but it’s also the inescapable conclusion of seeing the revenue vs installs data for key verticals on Android and iOS:

Highlights to note:

• Gaming is completely inverted
  • Installs: Android 89.8% vs iOS 10.2%
  • Revenue: iOS 87.2% vs Android 12.8%
• On-Demand apps generate more money on iOS despite fewer installs (both proportionately and to a much larger degree absolutely)
  • Installs: Android 87.7% vs iOS 12.3%
  • Revenue: Android 38.2% vs iOS 61.8%
• Shopping is an iOS revenue powerhouse
  • Installs: Android 79.3% vs iOS 20.7%
  • Revenue: iOS 82.3% vs Android 17.7%
• Health & Fitness and Education are iOS-dominated in revenue
  • Health & Fitness installs are balanced (Android 50.9% vs iOS 49.1%), but revenue is 93.5% iOS
  • Education installs are split (51.1% Android vs 48.9% iOS), but revenue is 82.2% iOS
• Fintech is a prominent exception to the trend: installs skew to Android, but revenue to Android too
• Entertainment is perhaps the most balanced vertical
  • Installs: Android 72.5% vs iOS 27.5%
  • Revenue: Android 67.2% vs iOS 32.8%

Ad network share of spend: biggest winners

We saw some consolidation at the top for ad network winners from Q1 to Q2. We also saw a shift towards performance DSPs.

Gainers: absolute growth

In terms of absolute share gain, here are the top 10 winners for Q2:

Gainers: percentage growth

In terms of percentage growth, here are the top 5 gaining ad networks:

1. Jampp
2. AppSamurai
3. Buzzvil (a Korean adtech conglomerate)
4. Mega Fortuna (a rewarded/loyalty player in gaming)
5. Persona.ly RTB

Jampp appears on both lists, thanks to a massive jump in spend by Singular customers.

Gainers by platform

If we look at gainers by platform, some differentiation emerges. This is by percentage growth, which is why you don’t see Apple below, in spite of some reasonable absolute growth by Apple Ads.

Rewarded ad networks continue to grow

Look at those names in the lists above …

These are rewarded or incentivized ad networks that were among the fastest growing ad networks in Q1, and they’ve continued the momentum in Q2.

Ad network heatmap by vertical

It’s interesting to look at ad network share of spend by vertical:

Ad network share of voice

Some of the insights are fairly obvious:

• Meta and Google are consistently top networks across multiple verticals
• TikTok is regularly a top 3 player … especially in verticals with younger or entertainment-oriented audiences
• Apple Ads has a significant presence, even though it’s iOS-only
• Networks like Snapchat, Moloco, AppLovin, and Rokt appear as top performers in specific niches

For the non-SAN ad partners, here’s what we’re seeing as areas of strength:

• AppLovin: Shopping, Gaming, On-Demand
• Almedia: Gaming, On-Demand
• Moloco: Other, Gaming, Shopping
• Mintegral: Utilities, Gaming, Entertainment
• Rokt: Entertainment, Shopping, On-Demand
• Taboola: Entertainment, Shopping, On-Demand
• IronSource: Gaming, Entertainment
• Liftoff : Gaming, Shopping
• Remerge: On-Demand, Shopping, Financial
• Kakao: Entertainment, Other
• Criteo: Shopping, Financial

Hottest game genres

Key findings:

• Simulation games are the top category on both Android and iOS
• Sports is nearly twice as popular on iOS: 19.8% vs 9.3%
• Kids and Party games over-index on iOS
  • Kids: 9.3% vs 4.8%
  • Party: 5.6% vs 1.2%
• More niche genres vary: RPG is much bigger on iOS, proportionately, than Android, for example

Android is more action heavy and more focused on pick-up-and-play experiences as well as high-intensity gaming. iOS trends to Sports, Kids, Party & Puzzle type games, with a stronger tilt toward family, social, and strategic gameplay.

Android games

The most popular game genres globally for Android are Simulation, Action, and Puzzle, again. (Just like last quarter.)

Android games: top genres

The fastest-growing game genres for Android are:

1. Tabletop
2. Match
3. Word
4. Sports
5. Kids
6. Lifestyle
7. Gambling
8. Casino
9. Card/tabletop

iOS games

The most popular game genres globally for iOS are Simulation, Puzzle, and Sports, followed by Kids and Action games.

iOS games: top genres

The fastest-growing game genres for iOS are:

1. Shooting
2. Tabletop
3. Match
4. Adventure
5. Party
6. Sports
7. Board
8. RPG
9. Lifestyle
10. Music

Hottest app verticals

Key findings:

• Android users are far more focused on On-Demand services: 51.7% vs 37.5% of downloads
• iOS has nearly double the share of Entertainment downloads compared to Android: 36.6% vs 18.6%
• Travel is relatively bigger on iOS: 7.8% vs 3.8%
• Android has a slightly higher share in financial services
• iOS slightly over-indexes in Education and Health & Fitness

Android app installs trend to functional and service-oriented verticals. iOS trends to more lifestyle and discretionary verticals.

Overall, the fastest growing verticals are On-Demand, Entertainment, and Shopping.

Android verticals

The On-demand and Entertainment verticals captured literally 70.3% of all the downloads Singular measured on Android (apart from games, of course). 

Note that while the Financial category is nowhere near the size of either of those categories, it’s CPIs can be 10X higher, as we saw earlier.

Android apps: top verticals

The fastest-growing app verticals for Android are:

1. Utilities
2. Shopping
3. On-Demand
4. Entertainment
5. Other
6. Gaming

iOS verticals

iOS is even more concentrated, with 74.1% of all installs in the On-demand and Entertainment categories. 

iOS apps: top verticals

The fastest-growing app verticals for iOS are:

1. On-Demand
2. Health & Fitness
3. Entertainment
4. Gaming
5. Travel

Footnotes

Countries and tiers

We look at global data through a number of filters. One is country tiers, which because of our customer base we define as:

• China
• Japan
• Rest of world
• Tier 1 East: Korea, India
• Tier 2 East: Taiwan, Indonesia, Turkey, Thailand, Philippines
• Tier 1 West: Canada, France, Germany, UK
• Tier 2 West: Australia, Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Poland
• United States

About this data

All of this data is based on Singular’s view of the adtech ecosystem. While we have a significant share of the Mobile Marketing Platform space and see a huge amount of data, our insights will be biased towards actively marketing and growing apps that are spending significantly on user acquisition.