Global Mobile Apps in July | AI creatives help web novel apps climb the charts, while new micro-drama apps rise to prominence through sweet romance

SocialPeta sorted out the top 20 global mobile Apps by advertising, revenue, and downloads in July 2025, hoping to be of assistance to more people in the mobile app industry who are trying to understand the changing trends of the global mobile market.

The overall performance of mobile apps in July:

• Web novel apps step up efforts, with multiple products breaking into the top ranks
• 130K ad creatives fuel chart-topping success, FlareFlow enters the TOP 15
• NetShort downloads soar, up over 50% MoM
• Several new series debut, pushing Crunchyroll into the revenue chart gatekeeper position

Top 20 Mobile Apps by Advertising in July 2025

First, let’s take a look at the ad ranking of global mobile apps in July:

On iOS, the chart remains dominated by content-driven products, with micro-drama and novel apps clustering at the top. Several new products, such as RocNovel, NovelaGo, and AnyStories broke into the leading positions through heavy ad spending. The Android side shows greater diversity, with leading e-commerce platforms like Temu, SHEIN, and Alibaba.com maintaining a consistent presence, leveraging in-feed ads for high-frequency exposure across global platforms.

Now, let’s take a look at RocNovel:

RocNovel began global advertising as early as November 2024, and this marks its very first entry into the global ranking list. According to SocialPeta, RocNovel’s ad data in July is as follows:

• Around 260K  deduplicated ad creatives were launched across iOS and Android in July, with new creatives making up over 65.4%.
• Ads were placed in 74 countries/regions, with the U.S. contributing over 81.9%, followed by the U.K., Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.
• Among the newly launched creatives, video ads dominated, accounting for about 72.94%.
• Hot creatives focused heavily on emotional expression, featuring elements like slapping, crying, and pregnancy. The plotlines were mainly delivered through voiceovers and subtitles, enabling users to grasp the story within seconds and driving higher conversions.

One of RocNovel’s most popular video ads in July was strikingly simple: a sorrowful female lead looks away with tears in her eyes, paired with a dramatic voiceover— “My husband with triplets betrayed me… with my sister!”

 Distribution platform: Facebook  Estimated Impressions: 1.8 M

Next, let’s take a look at AnyStories.

The app began advertising on Android as early as 2020, while iOS campaigns only kicked off in August 2024. To date, its cumulative deduplicated creatives across iOS and Android have exceeded 419K. Below is a breakdown of its July ad performance:

• In July alone, AnyStories ran around 102K deduplicated creatives across iOS and Android.
• Ads were placed in 77 countries/regions, with the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Germany each contributing over 50% of their total ad creatives.
• Video ads made up the overwhelming majority in July, accounting for about 98.64%.
• Popular creatives were largely AI-generated videos, with recurring imagery such as fantastical white unicorns, muscular men walking toward the camera, women transforming into white wolves, and villains bullying women and children, among others.

Another rising star worth noting is the micro-drama platform FlareFlow, which only began advertising in April 2025. Remarkably, within just over three months, it has surged into the leading ranks—showcasing its strong determination to expand globally.

• In July, FlareFlow ran about 134K  deduplicated creatives across iOS and Android.
• Ads were placed in 78 countries/regions, with North America, Europe, and South America accounting for the largest share.
• Around 400 micro-dramas were promoted in July, with new titles making up about 74%.
• Among the newly launched dramas, local productions accounted for only around 11.15%.

The most heavily promoted title in July was Surrender to My Dominant Doctor, which tells the story of a heroine who, in order to pay for her father’s surgery, is trapped in a relationship with the cold, abstinent heir to a billionaire fortune, Sebastian. Their one-night encounter gradually develops into an unexpected romance. The sweet romance + domineering CEO formula continues to be the breakout strategy for new platforms entering global markets.

 Distribution platform: Facebook  Estimated Impressions: 370K

Top 20 Mobile Apps by Downloads in July 2025

  Apps outstanding with downloads on the App Store in July：

• NetShort stood out in the global micro-drama rankings, with 7 titles making it into the monthly Top 20 (by popularity). Among them, 30 Years Frozen, 3 Brothers Regret ranked No.1 by popularity, reaching 1.71M heat index and soaring to No.7 on this month’s chart, up 50% MoM.
• Prime Video continued to enrich its content library, releasing several popular titles in July, such as the action-comedy film Heads of State. This drove a significant surge in downloads, up 25% MoM, pushing it to No.18 on the chart.

Apps outstanding with downloads on the Google Play in July:

• Pinterest has recently been testing a new AI feature called “auto-collages”, which helps advertisers quickly turn their product catalogs into shoppable collages. This drove a significant increase in downloads, pushing it to No.19 on Google Play’s July revenue chart.
• India’s social e-commerce giant Meesho has officially completed its “desh wapsi” (return to India) restructuring! Its IPO filing drew strong attention, along with a unified rebranding. Downloads grew 16.7% MoM, earning it a spot in the Top 20 chart.

Top 20 Mobile Apps by Revenue in July 2025

Apps with surging revenue on the App Store in July：

• Crunchyroll enriched its anime library in July with new titles such as Gachiakuta and Dandadan 2, attracting a large base of anime fans. This pushed it to No.19 on the revenue chart.

• TikTok recently announced that its “Add to Music App” feature has been integrated with YouTube Music, noting that it has already generated hundreds of millions of track saves, converting into billions of streaming plays. 

Apps with surging revenue on the Google Play in July： 

• From June 24 to July 17, 2025, Twitch hosted its Summer Drops Fest, marking one of the hottest gaming weeks of the year. The event offered viewers in-game rewards, PC Game Pass time, and subscription perks. Running in parallel was TwitchCon, which drew massive participation from streamers and fans alike. By leveraging these high-profile events and diverse content, Twitch successfully attracted large numbers of users.

The above are insights into global mobile App launches in July  2025, as well as mobile App revenue and download situations across both the App Store and Google Play. For more mobile marketing data, please visit www.socialpeta.com.