US Consumers Use 18 Apps a Day – But Spend Most of Their Time on Just Six

New RealityMine findings define Americans’ complex daily

interactions with apps, sites

MANCHESTER, United Kingdom & New York, NY – September 16, 2025 –  New data from RealityMine’s unique privacy-first consumer tracking technology quantifies Americans’ prolific interactions with smartphone apps. The latest findings leveraging the RealityMine system – as deployed on the MFour panel – show that the average US smartphone user interacts with around 18 different apps per day, racking up 75 to 200 app sessions daily.

But despite the frequent swiping, the attention economy remains tightly concentrated—with just six apps accounting for nearly half (49%) of all time spent on mobile.

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These six dominant platforms—Facebook, TikTok, Safari, YouTube, Instagram, and Google Chrome—have created an attention bottleneck in an otherwise crowded app marketplace. Expand the list of leading apps to 25, and you can account for 69% of total app time, with categories like social media, browsing, music, messaging, and news leading the pack.

Notably, Roblox is the only gaming app to crack the top 25, while Netflix is the sole standalone streaming platform to make the cut, aside from TikTok and YouTube.

Short sessions, big impacts

The majority of app interactions are fleeting—lasting between 9 seconds and 2.5 minutes—but the sheer frequency adds up quickly.

App use peaks midweek, with Tuesday through Thursday being the most active days for both time spent and interactions. Usage drops off over the weekend—Saturday app time is approximately 6% lower than Wednesday—but sessions tend to be longer, suggesting more focused or relaxed engagement.

AI app growth surges

Meanwhile, AI is the breakout growth story of 2025. The ChatGPT app doubled its user base between January and July—from 9% to 20% of consumers—and saw a 9-fold increase in time spent. Early adopters of AI apps are also power users across the board, spending 80% more time on social media and using 26% more unique apps per month than the average user.

“Despite the surplus of data in the digital economy, platforms large and small still have little or no idea what consumers are doing on their competitors’ apps and sites,” said Chris Havemann, CEO of RealityMine. “Our technology delivers this essential piece of the strategic puzzle, capturing what real people are doing – in remarkable detail – on their smartphones and other devices. As this latest data shows, people are constantly switching apps—but their time is still largely monopolized by a few key players. And now, AI is beginning to disrupt even that, making in-roads into search and redefining the discovery process.”

Data cited come from US consumers – using both iOS and Android devices – participating in RealityMine’s digital tracking research on the MFour panel in July 2025.

About RealityMine  

RealityMine fills crucial data blind spots for global digital platforms, app creators and brands – providing a clear picture of consumers’ adoption and use of apps and other digital assets in every category. Trusted by the world’s leading technology and media companies, the company reveals the full digital lives of real people, covering both iOS and Android platforms—from app and web usage to e-commerce, mobility, and media consumption. Always privacy-compliant, RealityMine data supports a range of use cases, including competitive intelligence, product and platform strategy, and training proprietary AI models.