India is an extreme country when it comes to apps. The country continues to top global app downloads, but is not in the top 20 markets in terms of consumer spending, according to the report a new report by market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. India is the only market in the top 10 that sees downloads grow annually through 2025, besides Pakistan, the report found.
After a decline in downloads in 2024 to 24.6 billion from 25.9 billion in 2023, India will bounce back in 2025 with 25.5 billion app downloads.
People are also more engaged, thanks to AI applications and microdrama, as the time spent in applications increases from 1.13 trillion hours in 2024 to 1.23 trillion last year, according to the report.
When it comes to category growth, social media, social messengers, and security applications are being eclipsed. Meanwhile, AI assistants, microdrama apps, video editing apps, social discovery, and food and delivery apps are on the rise (largely due to the rise ultra-fast grocery delivery service).
Downloads of short drama apps increased by more than 350 million in the country, and AI assistants increased by 346 million downloads, which also reflects the global trend.
Users in India will download generative AI apps 198 million times in 2024. Not surprisingly, this number will increase to 602 million in 2025. First, companies like OpenAI and Google launched a new image model that sees the demand for AI assistants growing exponentially in India.
Second, many AI company started offering free premium plans to Indian users to gain market share.
Techcrunch event
San Francisco
|
13-15 October 2026
ChatGPT is the top generative AI app in terms of downloads, followed by Google Gemini, Perplexity, and Grok. OpenAI Assistant also ranks well in overall downloads and is only behind Instagram in terms of downloads.
Microdrama is another category that is on the rise in 2025, both globally and in India. Kuku TV, Story TV, QuickTV (by social network provider ShareChat and short video app Moj), and DashReels ranked first, third, fifth, and eighth in the video streaming category, respectively.
Kuku TV, which the parent company raised $85 million in a Series C round last fall led by Granite Asia, also ranked fourth in the global category. In November, ShareChat co-founder Manohar Charan told CNBC that more than 40 million users watch microdrama content on the TV Cepet platform. Industry expert has predicted that the Indian microdrama market could reach tens of billions of dollars by 2030.
A key indicator of the category’s rise is that after the third quarter of last year, users in India downloaded more short drama apps than OTT streaming apps like Netflix and JioHotstar.
In India, the domestic app industry seems to be growing as the share of downloads from local players increased from 33.91% to 36.52%. However, this increase may be due to people downloading more applications related to fast commerce, government services, and finance than entertainment and other digital products, as the share of revenue from in-app purchases for domestic publishers remained flat.