Mobile app trends over the 2025 festive season | Adjust

Summary

The Adjust 2025 festive season report reveals distinct mobile app trends across categories, offering actionable insights for ad operations. Entertainment apps saw installs consistently above the 2025 daily average throughout December, with video streaming spiking 54% above average on New Year's Eve. E-commerce had two distinct phases: deal discovery apps drove high sessions (up 37%) in early December, while shopping app installs soared post-Christmas (up 18% on Dec 27).

Finance app sessions surged 34-36% in early December for budgeting and payments, then declined during festivities. Food delivery maintained steady installs (26-58% above average) and sessions (19-36%) from early December through New Year's Day, with continued post-Christmas strength. Gaming installs rose 7% on Christmas Day, then accelerated to +18% on New Year's Day, with subgenres like racing (+48%) and hybrid casual (+35%) seeing huge gains.

Sessions also improved, with sports (+25%) and idle RPG (+20%) leading on New Year's Day. Travel apps peaked Dec 26-28 with +23% installs, while maps & navigation spiked early December and again post-Christmas. For ad ops: phase campaigns by category—invest in installs for entertainment and shopping post-Christmas, focus on engagement for finance pre-holiday, maintain always-on presence for food delivery, and use two-phase strategy for gaming (install-focused post-Christmas, engagement-led at year-end).

These data points enable precise budget allocation and creative rotation to capture seasonal demand.

Analyst Note

This article’s granular breakdown of install and session peaks across app categories is a strategic signal for ad ops pros: the festive season is not monolithic. The data reveals distinct timing windows—finance activity peaks before Christmas, while gaming and entertainment surge after—which directly impacts campaign pacing and budget allocation. For teams managing UA, the key implication is that a single holiday campaign strategy risks missing these micro-moments.

The article’s reliance on Adjust’s own data also underscores a broader industry signal: as privacy regulations tighten and IDFA deprecation reshapes attribution, platform-specific insights like these become critical for calibrating spend. The competitive angle is clear—advertisers who recognize that shopping apps peak post-Christmas while deal discovery apps spike earlier can optimize creative sequencing and bid strategies. For monetization teams, the session data (e.g., finance apps dipping during festivities) helps align ad inventory planning with expected user engagement.

This analysis reinforces that success in the 2025–2026 cycle depends less on blanket holiday pushes and more on time-sensitive, category-aware decisions.