According to DigitalApplied, mobile devices generate 75% of e-commerce traffic, 91% of social media sessions, and approximately three-quarters of all digital ad impressions worldwide. These figures clearly demonstrate the growing popularity of the format, but they do not provide the full picture.

The RentAcc advertising platform team has prepared an overview of key trends from the first two quarters of 2026. The statistics below have been collected from authoritative sources and will help you allocate advertising budgets more effectively and achieve better results in in-app advertising.

What Is Happening in the Mobile Advertising Market

The global mobile advertising market has already surpassed $430 billion and continues to grow. Mobile devices account for 74% of all digital advertising spend, while Google, Meta, and TikTok collectively capture 67% of advertising budgets. Mobile traffic sources have become the primary acquisition channel across almost all verticals.

Source: DigitalApplied

If you drive traffic to an app, you can achieve higher conversion rates. To support this statement, let’s look at DigitalApplied statistics comparing ads that lead to apps versus mobile websites. The advantages of apps are evident across all key metrics:

  • fast authentication and login;
  • the ability to add and save a payment card for repeat deposits;
  • user engagement through push notifications.

A mobile website simply cannot fully replicate these features. At the same time, the cost of acquiring app users is higher, which is why it is important to calculate user LTV before launching campaigns.

Source: DigitalApplied

Creative quality, audience targeting accuracy, and proper campaign setup directly impact final ROAS. Affiliate marketers and teams that continuously test new approaches, audience segments, and in-app events gain an advantage in the auction and identify profitable combinations faster.

Let’s take a closer look at mobile advertising trends in 2026, with a focus on the iGaming vertical and in-app advertising.

Trend #1. Shift Toward Local Applications

Running traffic exclusively through Meta, Google, and TikTok remains effective for the United States and most European markets. However, in many Asian and Latin American countries, the majority of users are concentrated in local applications that serve not only as major advertising platforms but also as traffic sources. The AdMapix chart below illustrates the platform hierarchy across Tier 2–3 markets, where local apps have significantly more influence than many advertisers realize.

Source: AdMapix

In China, local services such as WeChat and Kuaishou dominate the market. In Japan, LINE plays a major role, while South Korea is heavily influenced by KakaoTalk and Naver. Similar patterns can be observed in other regions. In Latin America, WhatsApp has become a key communication channel, while in Gulf countries, Snap often delivers better results than globally recognized social media platforms.

As a result, many affiliate teams are expanding their range of traffic sources. RentAcc provides agency accounts for Unity Ads, Kayzen, and BIGO Ads, allowing you to launch campaigns across hundreds of thousands of mobile applications and scale traffic acquisition in markets where local advertising networks deliver the strongest performance.

At the same time, it is not advisable to connect every available traffic source at once. A far more effective strategy is to select two or three priority GEOs, determine which platforms hold leading positions there, and conduct comprehensive tests with sufficient budgets. This approach allows you to objectively evaluate traffic quality, acquisition costs, and scaling potential.

Trend #2. Campaign Success Is Increasingly Defined by Audience Quality

The mobile advertising market is gradually shifting its focus from the number of installs to the quality of acquired users. For affiliate marketers working on a revenue share model, this trend is directly tied to offer selection. The product must have a clear retention strategy, while the advertiser should be interested in long-term cooperation. In the iGaming vertical, the quality of acquired leads directly impacts repeat deposits and LTV. However, a significant share of responsibility for converting and retaining high-intent users lies with the advertiser and the quality of their product.

According to the Adjust Mobile Advertising Report, casino and slots apps showed strong install growth of 22% and 46%, respectively. At the same time, the number of sessions in both categories declined by 5%, indicating user churn and highlighting the need to focus on retention.

Source: Adjust

The average gaming session length worldwide decreased to 30 minutes.

Source: Adjust

At the same time, the number of daily sessions per user remained stable at 1.65 launches per day across all gaming apps, including online casinos and slots, in 2025.

Source: Adjust

Competition for user attention is also increasing. The number of paid installs in gaming apps grew across most verticals. On average, the paid-to-organic install ratio increased from 2.07 to 3.33 (+61%). The strongest growth was observed in:

  • casino apps — +223% to 11.05;
  • casual games — +139% to 7.16;
  • slots — +447% to 5.63.

Source: Adjust

Advertisers are increasingly concentrating their budgets on a smaller number of partners capable of consistently delivering high volumes of quality users.


Source: Adjust

When choosing an offer, it is important to look beyond the payout for a target action. A strong product, effective retention strategy, and an advertiser focused on long-term growth all directly impact the stability of RevShare earnings for affiliate marketers.

Trend #3. The Growing Importance of Interactive Ad Formats

Interactive advertising formats such as Playable Ads, Rich Media, and End Cards continue to gain momentum in the United States and China. In other markets, these formats have not yet reached the same level of adoption. Static creatives remain effective in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and certain regions of Asia.

User-generated content (UGC) occupies a separate category, but its ideal format varies significantly by market. In Japan, high-quality and carefully produced videos that resemble professional productions perform best. In the United States, audiences tend to respond more actively to simple smartphone-shot videos. In China, influencer content plays a major role, while in Southeast Asia and Latin America, UGC created by local creators continues to gain popularity.

What works in one region often fails in another. This is clearly illustrated by the AdMapix matrix, which demonstrates how different mobile advertising formats are perceived across various regions.

Source: AdMapix

Short-form video remains a universal advertising format suitable for most GEOs, but successful launches require proper localization. It is important to adapt not only the language but also the hook, storyline, pacing, visual style, and characters. A video that performs well in the United States may deliver poor results if it is simply translated into Indonesian without further adaptation. In many cases, a simpler creative designed specifically for the local audience, featuring local characters and culturally relevant presentation styles, can achieve significantly higher conversion rates.

Trend #4. CPI Is Rising While Competition Is Intensifying

The cost of mobile traffic is becoming increasingly dependent on the region. Differences between GEOs are often much more significant than differences between advertising platforms, so when allocating budgets it is important to consider not only the traffic source but also the market you are buying in. For example, CPM in the United States is approximately 3–5 times higher than in Southeast Asia and Latin America. In India, the cost of one thousand impressions on the same platform and within the same ad format can differ by as much as 8–15 times. These figures directly impact testing volume, campaign selection, and potential scaling opportunities.

Source: AdMapix

User acquisition costs also continue to rise. In 2025, the global average CPI increased to $0.56, which is 30% higher than the previous year. The most significant increase was recorded in the slots category, where CPI reached $4.47. At the same time, user acquisition costs in the casino category declined.

Source: Adjust

The same traffic source can deliver completely different results depending on the GEO, vertical, and creative format. As a result, choosing the right market is becoming increasingly important in mobile advertising, which brings us to the next trend.

Trend #5. Growth Opportunities Are Shifting Across GEOs

Major markets still generate the largest traffic volumes, but the fastest growth is now coming from specific regions and countries that were not always considered priorities by media buyers in the past. India remains one of the main growth drivers thanks to its massive audience. Even a modest increase of 2% brought an additional 132 million downloads compared to Q1 2025 — the largest increase among all countries.

Africa recorded the highest growth rate in in-app purchase revenue among all regions, approaching 10%. South Africa and Nigeria made the largest contribution to this growth. Among Asian markets, Myanmar showed impressive growth of +30%, while Indonesia grew by +2%.

Source: Sensor Tower

At the same time, the performance of individual verticals varies significantly by GEO. For example, global casino category metrics are declining largely because of a downturn in the United States, one of the industry’s largest markets.

Source: Sensor Tower

However, this does not mean that the gambling vertical is losing its potential across all markets. A closer look at individual GEOs reveals several countries where casino, lottery, and bingo categories continue to generate revenue growth:

  • Indonesia — up 98%.
  • Brazil — up 16%.
  • Italy — up 14%.
  • UK — up 14%.
  • South Korea — up 13%.
  • Turkey — up 13%.
  • France — up 12%.
  • Spain — up 11%.
  • Australia — up 10%.
  • Japan — up 10%.

Source: Sensor Tower

A similar trend can be observed in download volumes. Growth in the casino category was recorded in:

  • Japan — up 27%.
  • France — up 26%.
  • Canada — up 13%.
  • UK — up 11%.
  • United States — up 5%.

Source: Sensor Tower

How Do These Trends Affect Media Buyers?

Rising CPI, increasing competition for users, changes in audience behavior, and growing regulatory pressure are forcing teams to take a more strategic approach to GEO selection, traffic sources, and launch strategies. While some markets are only beginning to open up to legal online gambling, others have already reached a high level of maturity and are attracting increasing attention from regulators.

For example, following the legalization of online gambling in the United States, searches related to gambling addiction treatment increased by 61%. In Australia, gamblers lost $36 billion between March 2025 and March 2026. As a result, regulators are strengthening advertising oversight, introducing new responsible gambling requirements, and expanding self-exclusion programs.

At the same time, several GEOs still offer strong potential for testing new approaches. Indonesia, Thailand, Brazil, and Mexico are particularly attractive due to their lower CPMs and highly responsive audiences. RentAcc provides in-app agency accounts for all of these markets, allowing you to test hypotheses at a lower cost before scaling successful campaigns to more expensive Tier-1 regions.

Conclusion

We have reviewed the key mobile advertising trends that will help you understand where the market is heading and which changes are likely to influence success in 2026. Analyzing GEOs, traffic sources, and audience behavior will help identify new growth opportunities and maintain stable performance.

A technology-driven CRM platform like RentAcc can also help, bringing together everything you need in one place:

  • transparent account and access management;
  • advertising infrastructure management;
  • billing and balance control;
  • Telegram notifications;
  • automation tools.

If you are planning to launch campaigns in new traffic sources or scale existing campaigns, consider using RentAcc’s in-app agency accounts: Unity, Kayzen, and BIGO, with the ability to easily launch and scale iGaming campaigns.

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