User Acquisition Intelligence Report

September 2025 Ad Growth Analysis

Discover the fastest-growing mobile apps and the advertising strategies powering their user acquisition campaigns in September 2025.

10.2K
Apps Analyzed
228
Advertisers
193
AdTech Platforms
8.9K
Creative Assets
503.1K
Events Captured
4.7K
Unique API Domains

Executive Summary

Key findings and performance overview for September 2025

Overview

In September 2025, AppGoblin analyzed 10.2K mobile apps and captured 503.1K HTTPS events across 4.7K unique API domains, providing a comprehensive view of acquisition activity.

This activity spanned 193 AdTech platforms supporting 228 advertisers and 8.9K creative assets driving some ad campaigns to 76.6% week on week installs growth.

This is a behind-the-scenes look at mobile app advertising based on data collected by AppGoblin.

  • Which apps were advertising the most — 228 apps were actively running ads
  • What their ads looked like — nearly 8.9K different commercials, banners, and videos
  • Where they were advertising — 193 different advertising platforms and services
  • How the whole system works — over 503.1K technical interactions captured (clicks, loads, redirects)

Ad Impacts on Weekly Install Growth

App discoverability in the app stores is dead.

Organic app discoverability is the myth that the ad monopolies on the Apple and Google use to juice their store ad campaigns. Few people search for new apps.

Meanwhile, in-app ads are a direct way for apps to reach new audiences (you're still not getting away from the ad monopolies). The Ad Impact section shows the correlations between apps that were seen running ad campaigns and their increased installs during the following week.

These are the September 2025 ad mobile app ad campaigns (US) that drove the highest increases in week on week (W/W) install growth.

RankAppBest WeekW/W GrowthInstalls (week)Ad CreativesAd NetworksMMP
1Motor Speed Traffic 3D
Motor Speed Traffic 3D
com.motor.speed.traffic3d
2025-09-29+163.6%3M
2Dairy Queen® Food & Treats
Dairy Queen® Food & Treats
com.olo.dairyqueen.production
2025-09-08+159.8%73.1K
3Flood-It!
Flood-It!
com.labpixies.flood
2025-09-15+156.8%11.6K
4Crypto.com: Buy BTC, ETH & CRO
Crypto.com: Buy BTC, ETH & CRO
co.mona.android
2025-09-01+136.0%176.7K
5Eight: Business Card Manager
Eight: Business Card Manager
net.eightcard
2025-09-08+109.4%5.9K
6CallApp: Caller ID & Block
CallApp: Caller ID & Block
com.callapp.contacts
2025-09-08+107.4%2.2M
7ABCmouse 2: Kids Learning Game
ABCmouse 2: Kids Learning Game
com.aofl.abcmouse
2025-09-29+100.1%71.9K
8Redfin: Buy, Sell & Rent Homes
Redfin: Buy, Sell & Rent Homes
com.redfin.android
2025-09-08+95.0%29.4K
9Fetch: America’s Rewards App
Fetch: America’s Rewards App
com.fetchrewards.fetchrewards.hop
2025-09-08+90.5%114.1K
10滿貫大亨 - 快打旋風登場
滿貫大亨 - 快打旋風登場
com.igs.TMD
2025-09-29+59.0%5.3K
11Garden Joy: Design Game
Garden Joy: Design Game
com.scopely.gardenjoy
2025-09-29+56.1%9.3K
12Watcher of Realms
Watcher of Realms
com.td.watcherofrealms
2025-09-01+53.1%27.5K
13Lanetalk
Lanetalk
com.lanetalk
2025-09-01+39.9%2K
14Hello Kitty My Dream Store
Hello Kitty My Dream Store
com.actgames.HelloKittyMDS
2025-09-29+37.3%45.2K
15TikTok Lite - Faster TikTok
TikTok Lite - Faster TikTok
com.tiktok.lite.go
2025-09-01+20.9%302.1K
16Войны демонов – Сбор
Войны демонов – Сбор
com.elsgm2.gpsh2
2025-09-22+20.9%16.7K
17Gate: Trade BTC & ETH
Gate: Trade BTC & ETH
com.gateio.gateio
2025-09-01+18.9%39.2K
18Рассвет Магии: Истоки Силы
Рассвет Магии: Истоки Силы
com.mdsj.gamegpvk
2025-09-15+16.9%5.6K
19Sago Mini World: Kids Games
Sago Mini World: Kids Games
com.sagosago.World.googleplay
2025-09-22+14.1%63.6K

Most Popular Video Creatives

Video ads with the widest mobile app distribution during September 2025

🎬

Creative Performance

These mobile app ad video creatives achieved the widest distribution among mobile publishers in September 2025. The top performer was showing across 106 publishers demonstrating it's popularity and success as a mobile app ad creative.

TikTok was the leading advertiser and its creatives were preloaded the most. Interestingly there were several ecommerce product apps that were also seeing wide distribution. And of course at least one AI app, Microsoft's Copilot also saw one of the highest ad reach.

#1 Most Popular
App icon com.zhiliaoapp.musically
Publishers 106
First seen: Sep 12
Last seen: Sep 30
#2 Most Popular
App icon com.zhiliaoapp.musically
Publishers 63
First seen: Sep 12
Last seen: Sep 30
#3 Most Popular
App icon com.microsoft.copilot
Publishers 15
First seen: Sep 1
Last seen: Sep 28
#4 Most Popular
App icon com.niuaigo.solitaire.klondike
Publishers 13
First seen: Sep 3
Last seen: Sep 30
#5 Most Popular
App icon com.find.hint.pnone.smartdevices
Publishers 10
First seen: Sep 28
Last seen: Sep 28
#6 Most Popular
App icon com.energy.flashe.neow
Publishers 7
First seen: Sep 29
Last seen: Sep 29
#7 Most Popular
App icon com.aofl.abcmouse
Publishers 6
First seen: Sep 5
Last seen: Sep 28
#8 Most Popular
App icon com.clap.track.sadif
Publishers 6
First seen: Sep 28
Last seen: Sep 29
#9 Most Popular
App icon glowingeye.mexican_train_dominoes_classic
Publishers 5
First seen: Sep 28
Last seen: Sep 28
#10 Most Popular
App icon com.nintendo.zasa
Publishers 5
First seen: Sep 4
Last seen: Sep 30

Ad Network Landscape

The advertising platforms that powered September 2025 user acquisition campaigns

Publishers Apps That Ran Ads
2,310
App Advertisers
228
Ad Creatives (video & images)
2,344
🌐

Network Distribution

The mobile advertising Android ecosystem is monopolized by Google due to it's control of the Android OS. However, there are several other ad networks that provide valuable reach and targeting options for app advertisers. Overall we saw 2310 publishers, delivering 2344 unique creatives across the top ad networks in September 2025.

The other ad networks fighting for the leftover market share are split into two overlapping groups: SDK direct ad networks and programmatic networks.

  • SDK networks like Unity Ads and AppLovin can leverage their direct SDK integrations to control the ad delivery environment.
  • Programmatic networks like RTB House rely on these SDK networks to deliver their ads.
  • Note on Methodology

    When looking at this data its important to keep the context of how it was collected. The data is aggregated from API calls made by opening apps and watching the ad network connections. As such, this does not include App Store advertising (Apple/Google) or social media ads (TikTok/Facebook/Instagram). Facebook Audience Network (FAN) is included, but as it is quite small it didn't make the top 10.

    RankAd NetworkPublishersAdvertisersCreativesMarket Share
    1
    company-logos/google.com/logo_200x200.jpeg Google
    google.com
    1,4381141,378
    62.3%
    2
    company-logos/mobvista.com/logo_200x200.jpeg Mobvista
    mintegral.com
    18959177
    8.2%
    3
    company-logos/applovin.com/logo_200x200.jpeg AppLovin
    applovin.com
    1620246
    7.0%
    4
    company-logos/unity.com/logo_200x200.jpeg Unity
    unity.com, unity3d.com
    13751190
    5.9%
    5
    company-logos/rtbhouse.com/logo_200x200.jpeg RTB House
    rtbhouse.com
    10106
    4.4%
    6
    company-logos/yandex.com/logo_200x200.jpeg Yandex
    yandex.com
    7815200
    3.4%
    7
    company-logos/digitalturbine.com/logo_200x200.jpeg Digital Turbine
    adcolony.com, appreciate.mobi, fyber.com
    631448
    2.7%
    8
    Criteo
    criteo.com
    49043
    2.1%
    9
    company-logos/adikteev.com/logo_200x200.jpeg Adikteev
    adikteev.com
    48115
    2.1%
    10
    company-logos/bidease.com/logo_200x200.jpeg BidEase
    bidease.com
    45741
    1.9%

    Campaign Reach Analysis

    Publisher distribution strategies and market penetration insights

    Reach Tiers & Distribution

    These are the advertisers that appeared in the most unique publisher apps during this period. TikTok dominated with it's ads being shown in the vast majority of Google's preloaded ads.

    This is a useful set of apps for those looking to understand who is likely running larger mobile ad campaigns in September 2025.

    Final Insights

    Actionable takeaways and strategic recommendations for user acquisition

    💡

    Diversification is Key

    Google holds 62.3% market share. Concentrated monoplization of ad networks hurts app developers. Diversifying beyond Google Ads reduces platform risk and increases audience reach. This is currently only available for large app publishers.

    🚀

    High Growth Opportunities

    Average growth rate of 76.6% demonstrates significant opportunity in the mobile app market. Strategic ad campaigns can rapidly scale user acquisition for those that can afford it.

    About AppGoblin

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    AppGoblin is a free mobile ad intelligence platform that provides insights into the mobile app ecosystem. Our mission is to democratize access to mobile ad data, enabling developers, marketers, and analysts to make informed decisions.

    AppGoblin has many free tools for researchers, journalists and mobile app developers. Feel free to explore and contact us.

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    Data source: AppGoblin Ad Intelligence Platform | Report Period: September 2025

    For more insights and detailed analytics, visit AppGoblin.info

    Report Generated: October 2025