Festive Season 2025

in partnership with
Festive
Season 2025
App marketing trends and
strategies for India
ESSENTIAL GUIDE 2025

02
Content
01 Market trend
The festive season app economy 4
02 Performance benchmark
Cost, performance, and return on ad spend 15
03 Media mix and channel insights 18
04 Creative strategy 21
05 Remarketing, retargeting, and retention 25
06 Conclusion 30
Festive Season 2025 App marketing trends and strategies for India

In 2025, festive campaigns are expected
to account for more than 30% of total
annual digital ad spend, with mobile
continuing to dominate both attention
and transaction volumesI
This report, composed in collaboration
with Sensor Tower and Mobupps,
synthesizes key market data, campaign
benchmarks, and creative strategies to
help mobile-rst brands succeed during
the busiest shopping and engagement
window of the year. From CPI and ROAS
trends to media mix modeling and
creative fatigue mitigation, the insights
presented here reect the latest ndings
across thousands of campaigns and
billions of impressionsG
India’s festive season, which spans a full quarter-year, from Onam in
August through Diwali and Christmas in December, is a time of cultural and
religious celebration. It’s also a critical period for app marketers to drive
scale, optiuze media investments, and engage high-value audiences.
Introduction
03
The festive season in India is not just
about momentary spikes – it’s a strategic
window where data-driven storytelling
and timely user engagement make all
the dierence. At the scale we operate,
leveraging real-time insights allows us to
move beyond just installs and focus on
long-term impact. Reports like these
help decode shifting consumer behavior
during high-intent periods like Diwali,
enabling marketers to optimize both
performance and brand outcomes.
Nikhil Sharm
Head – Growth & Partnerships
By Singular, in partnership with Sensor Tower and Mobupps
Festive Season 2025 App marketing trends and strategies for India

01
Market trends
The festive season
app economy

In 2024, the festive period
delivered strong momentum
across both gaming and non-
gaming. As you’d expect
during the holidays, gaming
downloads outpaced
nongaming in sheer volume.
That said, non-gaming categories – in
particular, 1nance, food delivery, and
OTT – showed signi1cant shifts in user
intent and monetization, indicating
broader adoption of mobile-1rst
services as people enjoyed more leisure
time.
05
1.1.24
1.1.24
DOWNLOADS (MILLIONS)
IAP Purchases (USD) Millions
MONTH
Month
100r75r
50r 25r 0
$4r$3r$2r $1r 0
1.5.24
1.5.24
1.3.24
1.3.24
1.7.24
1.7.24
1.10.24
1.10.24
1.2.24
1.2.24
1.6.24
1.6.24
1.9.24
1.9.24
1.4.24
1.4.24
1.8.24
1.8.24
1.11.24
1.11.24
1.12.24
1.12.24
Mobile Games App Download
January — December 2024 | India
Mobile Games App IAP Store Revenue
January – December 2024 | India
Source: Sensor Tower
Source: Sensor Tower
Mobile games saw total downloads surpass
3 .2 billion, with in-app purchase (IAP) revenue
reaching $151 million.
While Q3 and Q4 downloads dropped
slightly from Q2, they delivered the highest
revenues of the year – $88.8M in Q3 and
$92 .3M in Q4 – evidence that festive-season
users are higher-value and more li kely to
spend.
October , the month of Diwali, saw the
highest installs overall during the festive
period.
R evenue grew steadily month over month,
pea king in December .
$88.8M
Revenue delivered
in Q3 2024
$92.3M
R evenue delivered
in Q4 2024
Festive Season 2025 App marketing trends and strategies for India

1.1.24
1.1.24
Downloads (Millions)
IAP Purchases (USD) Millions
MONTH
Month
1,502
1,002 502 0
$52
$42 $32$22 $12 0
1.5.24
1.5.24
1.3.24
1.3.24
1.7.24
1.7.24
1.10.24
1.10.24
1.2.24
1.2.24
1.6.24
1.6.24
1.9.24
1.9.24
1.4.24
1.4.24
1.8.24
1.8.24
1.11.24
1.11.24
1.12.24
1.12.24
Mobile App (Non Games) Downloads i
January – December 2024 | India
Mobile App (Non Games) App IAP Store Revenuei
January – December 2024 | India
06
Source: Sensor Tower
Source: Sensor Tower
Non-gaming apps also surged during the
festive quarter, particularly in shopping,
ntech, food delivery, and OTT, where
seasonal behavior shaped both install and
revenue trends.
In non-gaming, there was a strong
correlation between festive milestones and
transactional behavior. This suggests that
during the holidays, users prefer the
convenience of mobile to manage shopping,
meals, payments, and entertainment.
Festive Season 2025 App marketing trends and strategies for India

The holiday season created a massive
opportunity for brands as they tapped into the
celebratory spirit, and users responded with rapt
attention. Digital ad spend in India consistently
follows a seasonal pattern, with a
signi6cant ramp-up ahead of the main
festive season. The 2024 trend illustrates
this clearly, showing relatively stable
spending for most of the year before a
sharp spike begins in October,
indicating the start of major festive
campaigns.E
This trend is poised to intensify in 2025.
Ad spend in the 6rst half of the year has
already outpaced 2024 levels, and
forecasts predict a more pronounced
festive surge.
The projected sharp increase beginning
in October is expected to push monthly
spending towards the $250 million mark,
signaling a recordbreaking holiday
season.
India: State of Digital Advertising
07
JAN
IAP Purchases (USD) Millions
Month
$300M
$100M
$200M
$0M
$250M
$50M
$150M
MAY MAR JUL OCT FEB JUN SEP APR AUG NOV DEC
India Monthly Digital Ad Spend
Trends and Forecast
Source: Sensor Tower
2024 2025 2025F
Festive Season 2025 App marketing trends and strategies for India
Key indicators
from the
2024
season (SEP–DEC)
India’s festive quarter outpaces
the rest of the year. Mobile ad
spend in India surged from
₹85 0 crore in Q1–Q 2 2024 to
₹1,3 00 crore in Q3–Q 4, marking
a 53% increase, according to
data from Mobupps.

Key indicators from the 2024 season (Sep–Dec):
08
Q1–Q2 2024 Q1–Q2 2024 Q1–Q2 2024
850 ₹ CR 220 M
65 M
1300 ₹ CR
300 M
110 M
Q3–Q4 2024 Q3–Q4 2024 Q3–Q4 2024
Value (₹ Cr) Value (₹ Cr) Value (₹ Cr)
1200 300 100
800 200 60
400 100
20
1000 250 80
600 150
40
200 50
0 0 0
Total Mobile Ad Spend (India) App Installs Re-engagement Events
If the rst half of 2024 was the warm-up,
Q3–Q4 turned into a full-blown
celebration for mobile advertisers in
India. The Diwali week alone saw
record-breaking activity, proving once
again that seasonal moments are both
culturally and commercially signicant.
Yaron Tomchi
CEO
Festive Season 2025 App marketing trends and strategies for India
App installs rose 36% exceeding 300 million
during the festival season.
Re-en gagements increased 6 9% , as brands
p ushed retention -focused cam paigns in the
w ee ks follo wing Diw ali , and users res ponded
by coming bac k for more.
G amin g and entertainment cate gories
p ea ked during Diw ali wee k, w hile .nance ,
travel , and sho pping a pps sa w extended
activit y through Decem ber.
Sourc e: Mob upps So urc e: Mob upps So urc e: Mob upps

Shopping app’
Saw the steepest install acceleration during
Dussehra and Diwali.  In Q3, downloads rose nearly
20% over Q2. October marked the annual peak,
driven by Diwali mega-sales. Meesho, Flipkart, and
Amazon led across both installs and engagement,
reecting strong demand in both Tier 1 and Tier
2/3 markets.
These trends highlight the importance of
building momentum from late Q2 or early Q3,
leveraging emotional, regional, and urgency-
driven creatives to capture early shoppers –
while continuing strong throughout Q4 to drive
re-engagement and gifting-led conversions.
09
Festive Season 2025 App marketing trends and strategies for India
Category-level
shifts
User behavior and engagement
varied across verticals during
the holidays. App categories
saw distinct seasonal patterns
that were inuenced by factors
including timing, audience
demographics, and cultural
triggers. According to Sensor
Tower
Mobile Shopping App Downloads
January – December 2024 | India
Source: Sensor Tower
1.1.24
Downloads (Millions)
125
100
75
50
25
0
1.5.24 1.3.24 1.7.24 1.10.24 1.2.24 1.6.24 1.9.24 1.4.24 1.8.24 1.11.24 1.12.24
MONTH

Gaming app-
Saw strong momentum throughout the 2024
festive season, generating more than 3.2 billion
downloads and $151 million in in-app purchase
(IAP) revenue between August and December. Volume in Q3 and Q4 was slightly lower than in
Q2, but revenue performance reached annual
highs ($88.8 million in Q3 and $92.3 million in Q4)
illustrating the higher lifetime value of users
acquired during the festive season. October
delivered the highest install volume of the
season, while IAP revenue continued to climb
month over month, peaking in December.
09
1.1.24
Downloads (Millions)
MONTH
1000
750
500
250
0
1.5.24 1.3.24 1.7.24 1.10.24 1.2.24 1.6.24 1.9.24 1.4.24 1.8.24 1.11.24 1.12.24
Mobile Games App Downloads
January – December 2024 | India
Source: Sensor Tower
Festive Season 2025 App marketing trends and strategies for India
1.1.24
IAP Purchases (USD) Millions
MONTH
$40
$30
$20
$10
0
1.5.24 1.3.24 1.7.24 1.10.24 1.2.24 1.6.24 1.9.24 1.4.24 1.8.24 1.11.24 1.12.24
Mobile Games App IAP S tore Revenue
January – December 2024 | India
Source: Sensor Tower

10
Finance and travel app.
Saw strong post-Diwali momentum, as
consumers began planning year-end purchases,
vacations, and tax-saving investments
As you prepare for the 2025 festive cycle, the
insights in this report can serve as both a
benchmark and a roadmap. Use them to
sharpen your strategy, stretch your creative
thinking, and double down on the performance
levers that matter most.
Festive Season 2025 App marketing trends and strategies for India

Singular is the only end-to-end marketing
attribution and analytics platform that
uncovers true ROI across all marketing
channels
We transform complex marketing data into
actionable insights by unifying campaign data
from thousands of channels with cross-device
attribution data.3
Leading brands like LinkedIn, Nike, WB Games,
and Rovio rely on Singular to maximize every
marketing dollar, eliminate wasted spend, and
drive higher user retention. With superior ROI
reporting, advanced fraud prevention, user
engagement capabilities, and unmatched data
accessibility, marketers can nally drive faster
growth with smarter insights
www.singular.net www.mobupps.com www.sensortower.com
Mobupps is a global frontrunner in mobile
advertising and technology solutions
With a legacy spanning over 16 years, Mobupps
is a trusted name in the industry, tailoring
marketing campaigns to the unique needs of
businesses and oLering solutions that integrate
seamlessly across various industries and
platforms.3
Our product suite includes cutting-edge
technologies such as MAFO, iRTB, and
MobuppsX, which streamline user acquisition,
marketing automation, and media monetization.
By leveraging our extensive network and in-
house technologies, marketers can enhance user
engagement, optimize campaigns, and achieve
measurable growth. Sensor Tower is the leading source of mobile app,
digital advertising, retail media and audience
insights for the largest brands and app publishers
across the globe
With a mission to measure the world’s digital
economy, Sensor Tower’s award-winning platform
delivers unmatched visibility into the mobile app
and digital ecosystem, empowering organizations to
stay ahead of changing market dynamics and make
informed, strategic decisions
Today, Sensor Tower’s digital market insights
platform has expanded to include Audience, Retail
Media, and Pathmatics Digital Advertising Insights,
helping brands and advertisers understand their
competitor’s advertising strategies and audiences
across web, social, and mobile.