Mobile gaming hits $82B

Sensor Tower’s State of Mobile 2026 finds in‑app purchase revenue across apps reached $167 billion in 2025 while mobile games themselves grew only about 1.3% year‑over‑year. (sensortower.com) Apple’s iOS accounted for $51.9 billion of mobile game consumer spending in 2025, compared with roughly $31 billion on Google Play, according to Business of Apps’ data breakdown. (businessofapps.com) Sensor Tower’s earlier State of Mobile Gaming report recorded 49 billion mobile game downloads in 2024, a decline of about 7% from 2023 as developers shifted toward live‑ops monetisation. (sensortower.com) Industry coverage names crypto casino brands—Stake, BC.Game, Shuffle and Rainbet—among the fastest‑growing operators, noting their expansion is driven by heavy visibility, marketing spend and softer friction for players compared with regulated operators. (igamingtoday.com) Market analysts report crypto casino gross receipts have climbed toward the high‑tens of billions and expanded roughly fivefold between 2022 and 2024, with platforms offering much larger welcome and cashback bonuses as a user‑acquisition tactic (examples cited include Stake and Cybet). (ventureburn.com) Venture capital flows are tilting toward AI: PitchBook data cited by Cointelegraph shows AI startups captured about $73 billion—nearly 60% of global VC—in one quarter, a dynamic prompting some Web3 founders to debate sticking with crypto or pivoting to AI‑first roadmaps. (cointelegraph.com) Immutable, one of Web3 gaming’s better‑known studios, reduced headcount by roughly one‑third and has publicly said it is using AI to automate in‑game content and art as part of cost reductions during the 2024–25 market shakeout. (ccn.com)