Apps
App installs and monetization have decoupled across APAC's app economy, according to AppsFlyer's new State of Marketing in APAC 2026 report, with growth signals moving in opposite directions within the same vertical and market — a shift the company said makes a single regional growth number increasingly misleading for marketers.
The report draws on 30 billion installs across nearly 12,000 apps spanning finance, shopping, entertainment and gaming from the third quarter of 2024 through the second quarter of 2026, according to AppsFlyer.
"What we're seeing in the data is that installs and monetization have decoupled, and a single growth number, at the regional level, increasingly conceals as much as it reveals," said Ronen Mense, president and managing director for APAC at AppsFlyer. "These are new signals, and teams that read them correctly will make very different budget decisions from those still optimizing on install volume alone."
Gaming installs fall while paying users grow
Analyzing $6.7 billion in combined user acquisition and remarketing spend across app verticals, AppsFlyer found that finance installs grew across APAC, driven by expanding digital payment infrastructure, with organic installs up 55% on Android in India alone. Even so, finance's share of paying users fell in some of its strongest markets, including Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, according to the report.
Gaming showed the inverse pattern, AppsFlyer said: Android installs fell 17% to 26% across every APAC sub-region, a decline the company said could look like a shrinking market, yet gaming's share of paying users grew across every region and platform, including 29% growth in the Indian Subcontinent on iOS and 28% in Indonesia on Android.
Day 30 retention declined in every region and vertical
The retention data added further complexity, according to AppsFlyer. Finance's Day 7 retention on Android grew 45% year-over-year in Southeast Asia, a strong early signal, but Day 30 retention for the same vertical fell 32% over the same period. That gap between early engagement and lasting retention showed up across finance, entertainment and shopping in every region and on both platforms, the company said, while gaming's early retention stayed largely flat even as its Day 30 numbers softened in step with the other verticals.
"What we're seeing in the data is that installs and monetization have decoupled, and a single growth number, at the regional level, increasingly conceals as much as it reveals," said Ronen Mense, president and managing director for APAC at AppsFlyer. "These are new signals, and teams that read them correctly will make very different budget decisions from those still optimizing on install volume alone."
Gaming installs fall while paying users grow
Analyzing $6.7 billion in combined user acquisition and remarketing spend across app verticals, AppsFlyer found that finance installs grew across APAC, driven by expanding digital payment infrastructure, with organic installs up 55% on Android in India alone. Even so, finance's share of paying users fell in some of its strongest markets, including Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, according to the report.
Gaming showed the inverse pattern, AppsFlyer said: Android installs fell 17% to 26% across every APAC sub-region, a decline the company said could look like a shrinking market, yet gaming's share of paying users grew across every region and platform, including 29% growth in the Indian Subcontinent on iOS and 28% in Indonesia on Android.
Day 30 retention declined in every region and vertical
The retention data added further complexity, according to AppsFlyer. Finance's Day 7 retention on Android grew 45% year-over-year in Southeast Asia, a strong early signal, but Day 30 retention for the same vertical fell 32% over the same period. That gap between early engagement and lasting retention showed up across finance, entertainment and shopping in every region and on both platforms, the company said, while gaming's early retention stayed largely flat even as its Day 30 numbers softened in step with the other verticals.
AppsFlyer said Day 30 retention declined without exception across all four verticals, all four regions and both platforms.
Fraud rates improve overall but worsen in specific markets
Fraud rates declined broadly across APAC, according to AppsFlyer, with Shopping's iOS fraud rate in Southeast Asia falling 90% and Finance's iOS fraud rate falling 80% in the same region. But the company said that headline improvement concealed sharper risk in specific pockets: Gaming's Android fraud rate in Japan rose 68% over the same year, and Entertainment's iOS fraud rate in the Indian Subcontinent rose 170%, even as the regional average continued to improve.
AppsFlyer also found that entertainment installs grew 42% on iOS in the Indian Subcontinent, driven by regional-language content now accounting for 52% of total OTT viewing in India, while entertainment user acquisition spend in Vietnam grew 194% on Android, more than seven times the regional pace. Finance remarketing conversions grew 268% on Android in Indonesia, against just 3% growth in paid installs over the same period, according to the report. Shopping user acquisition spend in India grew 55% on Android, which AppsFlyer linked to two major e-commerce sales shifting into September 2025 and concentrating a full season of activity into a single quarter. Gaming user acquisition spend in Southeast Asia held roughly flat on Android while the paid installs it bought fell 36%, the company said, meaning the vertical paid about the same and received over a third fewer installs in return.
Mense said marketers need to read acquisition, retention, payer behavior and fraud signals together rather than in isolation. "A market losing installs but growing paying users needs a very different response from one gaining installs but losing retention," he said. "Understanding the mechanism behind the divergence will turn data into a real decision."
Fraud rates improve overall but worsen in specific markets
Fraud rates declined broadly across APAC, according to AppsFlyer, with Shopping's iOS fraud rate in Southeast Asia falling 90% and Finance's iOS fraud rate falling 80% in the same region. But the company said that headline improvement concealed sharper risk in specific pockets: Gaming's Android fraud rate in Japan rose 68% over the same year, and Entertainment's iOS fraud rate in the Indian Subcontinent rose 170%, even as the regional average continued to improve.
AppsFlyer also found that entertainment installs grew 42% on iOS in the Indian Subcontinent, driven by regional-language content now accounting for 52% of total OTT viewing in India, while entertainment user acquisition spend in Vietnam grew 194% on Android, more than seven times the regional pace. Finance remarketing conversions grew 268% on Android in Indonesia, against just 3% growth in paid installs over the same period, according to the report. Shopping user acquisition spend in India grew 55% on Android, which AppsFlyer linked to two major e-commerce sales shifting into September 2025 and concentrating a full season of activity into a single quarter. Gaming user acquisition spend in Southeast Asia held roughly flat on Android while the paid installs it bought fell 36%, the company said, meaning the vertical paid about the same and received over a third fewer installs in return.
Mense said marketers need to read acquisition, retention, payer behavior and fraud signals together rather than in isolation. "A market losing installs but growing paying users needs a very different response from one gaining installs but losing retention," he said. "Understanding the mechanism behind the divergence will turn data into a real decision."
See What’s Next in Tech With the Fast Forward Newsletter
Tweets From @varindiamag
Nothing to see here - yet
When they Tweet, their Tweets will show up here.
