May 14, 2026
Half of all US mobile time goes to just five apps. But the long tail is growing, AI apps are breaking into the top 25, and free streaming is gaining on paid. Understanding who's winning isn't just about what your own data tells you — it's about seeing where attention is going that isn't yours.
Every quarter, we pull behavioral data from our US consumer panel — around 100,000+ monthly active app users tracked passively with their consent, across every app they use. The question we're asking with this round of data: what does the app economy look like right now, and who's gaining ground?
The headline answer is that concentration and fragmentation are happening at the same time, which has real implications for how app businesses think about competing for time.
The top five apps by total time haven't changed in six months: TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Google Chrome. Together they account for 49% of all mobile time in our Q1 2026 data. If you expand to the top 25, that covers 69% of total time — dominated by social media, browsers, streaming, messaging, and gaming.
But here's what shifted: six months ago, the top 25 accounted for 75% of total time. That's a six-point drop in a single comparison period. So while the top apps are still holding their ground, the long tail is also getting more of the pie.
This matters because it suggests consumers aren't converging further around the same handful of apps. New apps are earning meaningful time. The question is which ones, and why.
The clearest growth story in the data is AI. ChatGPT grew its share of total time by 42% over the six-month period. Its user base also went from 20% of our panel in July 2025 to 35% in March 2026 — more than one in three US consumers are now using it at monthly, reflecting how chatbots are increasingly becoming part of our daily lives.
PolyBuzz — an AI character chat app — more than tripled its share of total time and is the only new entrant to break into the top 25. Character.AI doubled its share and climbed from rank 61 to 45.
This AI influence is also showing up via shifts in search behavior. The share of Google searches phrased as questions rose from 12% to 14% in the same period, with average search length also increasing. This trend is consistent across heavy, light, and non-users of ChatGPT, signalling that people are searching more conversationally whether or not they're using standalone AI tools.
Discord also had a strong six months, winning 29% more time and moving from rank 17 to 13. That’s a huge jump in a category as crowded as social and gaming.
Tubi and Roku both grew their share of time (12% and 15% respectively), while Amazon Prime Video, Peacock, and Netflix were essentially flat. Whether that's cost-of-living pressure, subscription fatigue, or both, the direction is consistent: ad-supported free streaming is taking time from paid subscription services.
For any platform competing in the streaming space, or any brand advertising across streaming inventory, this is a meaningful shift in where consumer time and attention is going.
These findings come from passive, observed behavioral data — consumers going about their normal app use, not self-reporting or responding to surveys. The panel covers 100,000+ US monthly active app users, tracked across everything they do, not just one app or category.
What that means in practice: you're seeing real behavior, including the time users spend in your competitors' apps and the moments they switch. That's the layer most platforms don't have access to.
What it doesn't replace: your own first-party data, which tells you what's happening inside your ecosystem. The value is in combining both — internal metrics alongside external behavioral context — so strategic decisions aren't made on a partial view.
The conversations at events like MAU Vegas tend to circle around the same core question: is our growth real, or are we just redistributing demand we already had?
Behavioral data across the full app ecosystem is the only way to answer that cleanly. You can't see whether your DAU growth is genuinely incremental, or whether your most engaged users are also spending significant time in a competitor's app, from inside your own platform.
The data above is from our US panel, Q1 2026. If you're heading to MAU and want to dig into what the behavioral picture looks like for your specific category, we're happy to talk.
