India is a country of extremes when it comes to using apps. According to the country’s data, the country still tops the list of app downloads globally, but is not among the top 20 markets for consumer spending new report by Sensor Tower, a market research company. The report found that India, along with Pakistan, was one of the few markets in the top 10 to see year-on-year growth in downloads in 2025.
After a decline in downloads in 2024 to 24.6 billion from 25.9 billion in 2023, India rebounded in 2025 with 25.5 billion app downloads.
The report found that people were also more engaged with AI and micro-drama apps, as time spent on apps increased from 1.13 trillion hours in 2024 to 1.23 trillion hours last year.
In terms of category growth, social media, social messaging and security apps declined. Meanwhile, AI assistants, micro-drama apps, video editing apps, social discovery apps, and food and delivery apps have all grown (mainly due to the rise of ultra-fast grocery delivery services).
The number of short-form drama app downloads increased by more than 350 million in the country, and the number of AI assistant downloads increased by 346 million, also reflecting the global trend.
In 2024, users in India downloaded generative AI applications 198 million times. No wonder this number has increased to 602 million in 2025. Firstly, companies like OpenAI and Google have introduced novel image models, which has resulted in a surge in the demand for AI assistants in India.
Secondly, many AI companies have started offering their premium plans to Indian users for free to gain market share.
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ChatGPT was the most popular AI generating app in terms of downloads, followed by Google Gemini, Perplexity and Grok. OpenAI Assistant also rose in the rankings in terms of overall downloads and was just behind Instagram in terms of downloads.
Micro-drama is another category that has gained popularity in 2025, both globally and in India. Kuku TV, Story TV, QuickTV (makers of the ShareChat social network and Moj compact video app) and DashReels took first, third, fifth and eighth place in the video streaming category.
Kuku TV, whose parent company raised $85 million in a Series C round last fall led by Granite Asia, also ranked fourth in the category globally. ShareChat co-founder Manohar Charan said in November CNBC that over 40 million users watched microdramas on the Quick TV platform. Industry experts have already predicted that the Indian micro-drama market could reach tens of billions of dollars by 2030.
A key indicator of category growth was the fact that users in India downloaded more short-form drama apps than OTT movie streaming apps like Netflix and JioHotstar after the third quarter of last year.
In India, the domestic app industry appears to be growing as the share of downloads from local players has increased from 33.91% to 36.52%. However, this escalate may be due to people downloading more apps related to high-speed trading, government services and finance rather than entertainment and other digital products, as domestic publishers’ share of in-app purchases revenue remained unchanged.