Data & Research March 24, 2026 • Updated: 9 November 2026

Mobile marketing
statistics 2026

50+ verified data points on mobile marketing. From smartphone usage and m-commerce to mobile advertising, app marketing, SMS and push, and mobile SEO. Compiled from Statcounter, GSMA Intelligence, Ericsson, Sensor Tower, Apple, Google and more, every figure linked to its source.

59.9%

of worldwide web traffic is mobile (October 2026)

Source: Statcounter, 2026

56.4%

of US online holiday transactions ran via a smartphone (2025)

Source: Adobe, 2026

$151B

in-app advertising revenue in the App Store ecosystem (2025)

Source: Apple, 2026

Statistics overview

The smartphone has become the primary screen for consumers worldwide. Six in 10 web page views worldwide now come from mobile devices (59.9%), and in the US 56.4% of online holiday transactions already run via a smartphone. But how do you turn that knowledge into an effective marketing strategy? For Dutch companies, what these figures mean when building a site: read more about web design agency (in Dutch).

This page compiles 50+ verified statistics on mobile marketing, sourced from Statcounter, GSMA Intelligence, Ericsson, Sensor Tower, Apple, Google, HTTP Archive, Adobe, Worldpay and other sources, each linked to the original. Whether you're optimizing landing pages for mobile through a conversion optimization agency, building a business case for mobile advertising, or refining your app strategy: this data hub gives you the numbers you need.

Section 1

Global mobile usage

5.8B

unique mobile subscribers worldwide (about 70% of the population)

GSMA Intelligence, 2026

3.6h

per day in apps per mobile user (roughly, 2025)

Sensor Tower, 2026

59.9%

of web traffic is mobile (October 2026)

Statcounter, 2026

3.3B

5G subscriptions worldwide in Q2 2026 (close to)

Ericsson, 2026

Worldwide web traffic by device (October 2026)

Mobile 59.9%
Desktop / Laptop 38.51%
Tablet 1.59%

Source: Statcounter Global Stats, October 2026 (share of page views)

  • 5.8 billion unique mobile subscribers and 8.8 billion wireless connections: mobile reaches around 70% of the world's population (GSMA Intelligence, 2026)
  • 5G keeps growing: one in three mobile subscriptions was 5G at the end of 2025; Ericsson expects 6.4 billion 5G subscriptions, two-thirds of the total, by the end of 2031 (Ericsson, 2026)
  • Mobile data traffic rose 23% between Q2 2025 and Q2 2026, to more than 220 exabytes per month (Ericsson, 2026)
  • 5.3 trillion hours were spent in iOS and Google Play apps in 2025 (+3.8%) (Sensor Tower, 2026)
  • Android runs 72.36% of mobile web traffic worldwide, iOS 27.61% (October 2026) (Statcounter, 2026)

Also explore our e-commerce statistics 2026 for the full picture of online retail.

Section 2

Mobile advertising

$151B

in-app advertising revenue in the App Store ecosystem, 2025

Apple, 2026

$3.03

average cost per install on iOS, Q1 2026 (Android $0.76)

Singular, 2026

92%

of iOS ad spend of e-commerce apps goes to remarketing

AppsFlyer via Advanced Television, 2026

Average cost per install, Q1 2026 (worldwide)

iOS $3.03 (-1.1%)
$3.03
All platforms $1.24 (+12%)
$1.24
Android $0.76 (+15.1%)
$0.76

Source: Singular Quarterly Report, Q1 2026 (change vs. Q4 2025)

  • Apple Ads at the top of App Store search results reach a tap-through install rate of over 60% (November 2024 to October 2025) (Apple Ads, 2025)
  • 38% of iOS users allowed app tracking (ATT) in Q1 2026, up from 35% a year earlier (Adjust via PPC Land, 2026)
  • Ad prices diverge by platform: iOS CPM fell 10.5% in Q1 2026 while Android CPM rose 7.3% (Singular, 2026)
  • Remarketing also takes 85% of Android ad budgets of e-commerce apps; in the UK, install-to-purchase conversion rose 179% on Android and 139% on iOS (1,800 apps, October 2024 to March 2026) (AppsFlyer via Advanced Television, 2026)
  • Installing an e-commerce app cost $2.25 on average in Europe in 2025 (was $1.83) and $2.49 in North America (was $2.61) (Adjust via PPC Land, 2026)
Section 3

M-commerce & mobile payments

56.4%

of US online holiday transactions via smartphone (2025)

Adobe, 2026

56%

of global online spend paid with digital wallets (2025)

Worldpay, 2026

74%

higher conversion rate on desktop than on mobile

Contentsquare, 2026

45%

of Dutch online purchases made on a smartphone (H1 2026)

Thuiswinkel.org, 2026

Payment methods in global e-commerce (2025, share of value)

Digital wallets 56%
Credit cards 20%
Debit cards 10%
Account-to-account (A2A) 7%
Buy now, pay later 4%

Source: Worldpay Global Payments Report 2026 (42 markets; BNPL approximately 4%)

  • US shoppers spent $257.8 billion online in the 2025 holiday season (+6.8%); 56.4% of transactions ran via a smartphone, up from 54.5% in 2024, and smartphones drove 82.2% of BNPL purchases (Adobe, 2026)
  • Mobile brings 69.9% of the traffic, but desktop converts 74% better (99 billion sessions, 6,000+ sites) (Contentsquare, 2026)
  • The gap varies by sector: luxury retail converts at 1.4% on desktop versus 0.9% on mobile; in Contentsquare's 2026 benchmark, retail conversion fell 3.5% on mobile and 8% on desktop (Contentsquare, 2026)
  • In the Netherlands a smartphone purchase averaged €80 in H1 2026, against €126 on a laptop or desktop (Thuiswinkel.org, 2026)
  • Global e-commerce was worth over $7.6 trillion in 2025 and is forecast to reach about $11 trillion in 2030; payment apps (wallets, A2A, BNPL) handled 67% of the value (Worldpay, 2026)
  • 39% of in-store payments in the Netherlands were made contactless with a phone or smartwatch in 2025 (DNB / Betaalvereniging, 2026)

Also explore our e-commerce statistics 2026 for the complete picture of online retail. Brands scaling m-commerce typically partner with a Google Shopping agency to keep mobile unit economics in check.

Section 4

App marketing & ASO

150B

app downloads on iOS and Google Play in 2025 (nearly)

Sensor Tower, 2026

$167B

in-app purchase revenue in 2025 (+10.6%)

Sensor Tower, 2026

70%

of App Store visitors use search to discover apps

Apple, 2022 data

+10%

growth in app installs worldwide in 2025 (sessions +7%)

Adjust via PPC Land, 2026

Cost per install and day-30 retention by app category (2025)

Category CPI worldwide CPI Europe Day-30 retention
Gaming $0.56 (+30%) n/a 5%
E-commerce $0.98 $2.25 n/a
Finance $1.13 $4.75 2%

Source: Adjust Mobile App Trends 2026 via PPC Land (n/a = not reported)

  • Almost 65% of App Store downloads happen directly after a search (App Store data 2022) (Apple Ads)
  • Non-game apps overtook games in in-app revenue for the first time in 2025: non-game IAP grew 21%, games reached nearly $82 billion (+1.3%) (Sensor Tower, 2026)
  • Generative AI apps doubled downloads to 3.8 billion and earned more than $5 billion in in-app revenue in 2025 (Sensor Tower, 2026)
  • Game apps keep 27% of users on day 1, 13% on day 7 and 5% on day 30; finance apps 12%, 6% and 2% (Adjust via PPC Land, 2026)
  • The App Store ecosystem facilitated over $1.4 trillion in billings and sales in 2025, of which $1.1 trillion in physical goods and services (Apple, 2026)
Section 5

SMS & push notification marketing

53.3%

median push opt-in rate on Android (2025)

Airship, 2026

48.85%

median push opt-in rate on iOS (2025)

Airship, 2026

10.3%

average click rate of an abandoned cart text message

Klaviyo, 2026

Abandoned cart flow: text message vs. email

Channel Click rate Revenue per recipient Top 10%: revenue per recipient
Text message (SMS) 10.3% $4.48 $8.69
Email 6% $6.77 $13.70

Source: Klaviyo, October 2026 (110,000+ Klaviyo customers)

  • Automated text messages earned $0.74 per send in 2025, against $0.15 for text campaigns (Omnisend, 2026)
  • Push automations turned 22.88% of clicks into conversions in 2025 (Omnisend, 2026)
  • Android push opt-in fell from 85% to 67% in a year, iOS from 58% to 56% (10,000 apps, July 2024 to July 2025) (Batch, 2025)
  • The best apps score far higher: the top 10% reach 86.63% opt-in on Android (utility) and 88.7% on iOS (education); the median iOS direct open rate fell 13.71% (681 billion pushes in 2025) (Airship, 2026)
  • The WhatsApp Business app passed 200 million monthly active users in 2023, up from 50 million in 2020 (TechCrunch, 2023)
Section 6

Mobile SEO & performance

2023

Google completed the switch to mobile-first indexing (31 October)

Google Search Central, 2023

53%

of mobile visitors leave if a page takes over 3 seconds to load

Google, 2016

48%

of mobile sites pass all Core Web Vitals (July 2025)

HTTP Archive, 2025

44%

of mobile sites have a good Time to First Byte

HTTP Archive, 2025

Core Web Vitals pass rates on mobile (worldwide, July 2025)

LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) ≤ 2.5s 62%
INP (Interaction to Next Paint) ≤ 200ms 77%
CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) ≤ 0.1 81%
All 3 Core Web Vitals good 48%

Source: HTTP Archive Web Almanac 2025 (Chrome UX Report data, % of sites with "good" scores)

  • Mobile sites are catching up: the share passing all Core Web Vitals rose from 32% in 2021 to 48% in 2025; on desktop it is 56% (HTTP Archive, 2025)
  • 0.1 seconds faster on mobile lifted retail conversions by 8.4% and order value by 9.2%; lead generation sites saw 21.6% more users reach the form page (37 brands, 30 million+ sessions) (Google / Deloitte via web.dev)
  • Sites that load within 5 seconds had 70% longer sessions and a 35% lower bounce rate than sites taking 19 seconds, the 2016 average on 3G (Google via Marketing Dive, 2016)
  • 73% of consumers started their last local search on a mobile device, 19% on a computer and 8% on a tablet; among 30-44 year-olds it is 86% (US) (BrightLocal, 2026)
Section 7

Regional mobile breakdown

71.29%

mobile share of web traffic in Asia (October 2026)

Statcounter, 2026

46.18%

mobile share in North America, where desktop leads (51.67%)

Statcounter, 2026

54.45%

mobile share of web traffic in Europe (October 2026)

Statcounter, 2026

Mobile share of web traffic by region (October 2026)

Asia 71.29%
71.29%
Africa 67.78%
67.78%
Europe 54.45%
54.45%
Oceania 48.14%
48.14%
North America 46.18%
46.18%
South America 43.76%
43.76%
Worldwide 59.9%
59.9%

Source: Statcounter Global Stats, October 2026 (Asia, Africa, Europe, Oceania, North America, South America, worldwide)

  • India is one of the most mobile markets: 84.21% of web traffic came from mobile devices in October 2026 (Statcounter, 2026)
  • In the Netherlands mobile accounts for 65.06% of web traffic, and 98.3% of 16-74 year-olds use the internet on a smartphone, the highest share in the EU (EU average 89.9%) (Eurostat, 2026)
  • 5G penetration in Western Europe was 54% at the end of 2025; Ericsson forecasts 95% in Western Europe and 92% in North America by 2031 (Ericsson, 2026)
  • Europe leads in buy now, pay later: BNPL took 9% of European e-commerce value in 2025, more than twice the global 4%; digital wallets hold 18% of in-store value in Europe versus 33% worldwide (Worldpay, 2026)
  • iOS share varies widely: 27.61% of mobile web traffic worldwide, 31.55% in the Netherlands (October 2026) (Statcounter, 2026)
Summary

Key takeaways

1

Mobile-first is the standard

59.9% of web traffic worldwide is mobile, 71.29% in Asia. Anyone not thinking mobile-first is missing the majority of their audience.

2

Shoppers buy on their phone

56.4% of US online holiday transactions and 45% of Dutch online purchases ran via a smartphone. Digital wallets pay for 56% of global online spend.

3

Mobile ads are app-driven

$151 billion in in-app advertising in the App Store ecosystem; an iOS install costs $3.03 on average, an Android install $0.76.

4

Speed = conversions

53% of mobile visitors leave after 3 seconds, and only 48% of mobile sites pass all Core Web Vitals. 0.1 seconds faster lifted retail conversions by 8.4%.

5

Owned channels need permission

Median push opt-in is 53.3% on Android and 48.85% on iOS; abandoned cart texts get a 10.3% click rate.

6

Regional gaps are large

Mobile traffic ranges from 43.76% in South America to 71.29% in Asia, and 84.21% in India. Your mobile strategy must match your target geography.

Methodology & sources

The statistics on this page are compiled from publicly available research reports by leading organizations. All figures were re-checked against the opened sources on 9 November 2026. Key sources include:

  • Statcounter Global Stats: web traffic by device, region and mobile operating system (October 2026)
  • GSMA Intelligence and Ericsson: mobile subscribers, 5G subscriptions and mobile data traffic
  • Sensor Tower, Apple, Adjust, AppsFlyer, Singular: app downloads, in-app revenue, in-app advertising, install costs and retention (Adjust and AppsFlyer via trade press, marked as such)
  • Adobe, Worldpay, Contentsquare, Thuiswinkel.org, DNB: mobile shopping, payment methods and conversion
  • Airship, Batch, Klaviyo, Omnisend: push notification and text message benchmarks
  • Google, HTTP Archive, BrightLocal, Eurostat: mobile-first indexing, page speed, Core Web Vitals, local search and smartphone use

Disclaimer: Every figure links to the source it was taken from. Benchmarks from app, push and messaging platforms are based on their own customer data and are not a census of the market. We could not verify a public total for worldwide mobile ad spend or m-commerce revenue, so this page does not give one. Figures labeled with a country or region only apply there. This page is compiled for informational purposes and does not constitute financial or strategic advice.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What percentage of internet traffic is mobile in 2026?

In October 2026, 59.9% of worldwide web traffic came from mobile devices, 38.51% from desktops and 1.59% from tablets (Statcounter). In Asia the mobile share is 71.29% and in India 84.21%, while in North America (46.18%) and South America (43.76%) desktop still leads. This makes a mobile-first strategy essential for any online marketing campaign.

How big is the global m-commerce market in 2026?

We could not verify a public total for worldwide m-commerce revenue. Worldpay estimates global e-commerce at over $7.6 trillion in 2025, with digital wallets (such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal) paying for 56% of that value. In the US, 56.4% of online holiday transactions in 2025 ran via a smartphone (Adobe); in the Netherlands, 45% of online purchases in the first half of 2026 were made on a smartphone (Thuiswinkel.org).

How much do companies spend on mobile advertising in 2026?

We could not verify a public total for mobile ad spend: the IAB/PwC and IAB Europe reports do not split spend by device. What is known: in-app advertising in the App Store ecosystem generated $151 billion in 2025 (Apple), an app install cost $3.03 on iOS and $0.76 on Android in Q1 2026 (Singular), and e-commerce apps spend 92% of their iOS ad budget on remarketing (AppsFlyer).

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Ruud ten Have

Compiled by

Ruud ten Have

Ruud is a digital marketer with 10+ years of experience in online advertising and mobile strategy. At Searchlab, he combines data-driven insights with hands-on optimization to deliver measurable growth for brands and retailers.

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