The sports industry is becoming increasingly digital. Fans are no longer interacting with teams, leagues, and athletes only through traditional media channels. Mobile devices have become a central point of engagement. Users follow live scores, watch highlights, track statistics, purchase tickets, participate in predictions, and interact with sports brands directly through apps.

This shift creates new opportunities for advertisers. Mobile platforms allow brands to reach highly engaged audiences during periods of peak interest, use interactive formats, and build communication around major sporting moments.

According to the Beyond the Game: The Sports Report 2026 by Sensor Tower, we analyze the key trends shaping sports marketing through mobile advertising.

Sports apps continue expanding their global audience

Sports applications continue to attract new users worldwide.

In the first half of 2026, sports app downloads reached 666 million, representing a 4% year-over-year increase.

The strongest growth came from emerging markets:

• downloads in Saudi Arabia and Brazil more than doubled;
• significant growth was also recorded in Japan (+72%), Argentina (+70%), and the UAE (+62%).

At the same time, some emerging markets demonstrated particularly strong monetization growth:

• UAE: +113%
• India: +107%
• Mexico: +69%

Meanwhile, the United States, which remains the largest sports app market by consumer spending, showed relatively stable revenue levels.

Overall, the sports app ecosystem is currently expanding primarily through user acquisition and growth in developing markets, while global revenue growth is becoming more moderate.

This creates new opportunities for advertisers: as sports audiences grow in new regions, brands can use mobile channels to reach fans in markets with increasing engagement and commercial potential.

Large-scale sporting events have a direct impact on mobile app adoption in different regions.

In Asia, the strongest seasonal peaks are linked to the Indian Premier League (IPL). During the second quarter of each year from 2023 to 2025, sports app downloads exceeded 125 million.

Latin America demonstrates the strongest long-term growth trajectory in sports app adoption. The FIFA World Cup became an additional growth accelerator: in Q2 2026, downloads reached a record 77 million.

During this period, Latin America overtook Asia in terms of downloads and accounted for more than a quarter of global sports app installs.

This demonstrates that major tournaments act as powerful catalysts for mobile engagement.

For advertisers, understanding these cycles is essential to launching campaigns when audience interest is at its highest.

In the United States, recurring demand peaks are driven by seasons of American football, basketball, and baseball.

For sports such as golf and tennis, engagement spikes are usually shorter and concentrated around major events, including the PGA Tour and Grand Slam tournaments.

Live scores and sports news apps benefit from tournament-driven demand

Apps focused on live scores, sports news, and statistics experienced significant growth during the FIFA World Cup 2026.

In Q2 2026, these applications reached a record 137 million downloads worldwide.

A similar increase occurred during the previous FIFA World Cup in Q4 2022, confirming that major football tournaments consistently drive demand for live-score and sports information services.

At the same time, sports streaming applications did not experience comparable growth.

One of the reasons is the shift in user behavior: audiences increasingly consume sports content through broader entertainment platforms rather than specialized streaming services.

Sports betting and prediction applications continue to demonstrate strong momentum.

The category has maintained steady growth for several quarters, with particularly strong expansion in Brazil following the regulation of the sports betting market.

Operators such as Betano and bet365 have been able to scale rapidly in the region.

Sports audiences differ significantly by region and competition

NBA and Formula 1 have the most globally diversified audiences, with users distributed across multiple markets.

By contrast, audiences of NFL, MLB, and IPL remain more concentrated in their home countries. More than two-thirds of active users come from the leagues’ core markets.

At the same time, India is becoming one of the fastest-growing markets for football.

The share of India among active users of the official FIFA application increased from 7% in 2025 to 19% in the first half of 2026.

This growth reflects increased interest around the FIFA World Cup 2026 and highlights the rapid expansion of mobile football audiences in India.

For international sports brands, this demonstrates the importance of adapting digital strategies to regional audience behavior rather than relying only on traditional fan markets.

Sports brands significantly increase digital advertising investments

Sports advertisers have substantially increased their digital media investments.

Between Q3 2025 and Q2 2026, digital advertising spending reached $3.3 billion, representing a 26% year-over-year increase.

Advertising impressions grew at a slower pace, indicating a shift toward:

• higher-value inventory;
• premium advertising formats;
• more engaged audiences.

A significant share of growth in the United States came from prediction markets — platforms focused on forecasting event outcomes.

Advertising channel preferences also vary by market. For example, in the United States, linear TV remains the largest channel by advertising spend, despite the continued growth of digital platforms.

Women’s basketball rapidly expands its digital audience

Women’s basketball continues to gain momentum among mobile users.

The WNBA app install base increased from 302 thousand downloads in Q1 2024 to 1.6 million in Q2 2026. While the NBA remains significantly larger in absolute audience size, the WNBA is rapidly closing the gap.

Its install base grew from approximately 13% of NBA levels in early 2022 to more than 60% by mid-2026. Growth is visible not only in downloads but also in user engagement.

By Q2 2026, the number of active WNBA app users remained more than 30 times higher than in Q1 2022. The WNBA is becoming a strong digital product in its own right, combining audience growth with sustained user interaction after initial acquisition peaks.

Prediction markets attract younger sports audiences

Prediction markets and pick’em platforms appeal to younger users compared with traditional betting applications.

For platforms such as Kalshi, PrizePicks, and Underdog, approximately two-thirds of users are under 35 years old, while traditional sportsbook platforms have a younger audience share of around half.

As Kalshi expands, its audience is becoming more diverse:

• the share of female users increased from 11% to 15%;
• the share of users under 35 declined from 72% to 62%.

This indicates that the platform is moving beyond its initial young-user base and attracting a broader audience.

At the same time, women remain a minority among sports betting app users, typically representing less than 20% of audiences.

Key takeaways from Sensor Tower statistics

• 1.2 billion sports app downloads worldwide. In the first half of 2026 alone, downloads reached 643 million (+0.6%).
• $1.4 billion in in-app purchase revenue, although the figure declined by 5.3% year over year. In H1 2026, revenue reached $696 million (+0.9%).
• 2.3 billion hours spent on sports-related apps and websites in the US. However, app usage increased by 6.7%, while web usage declined by 11.6%.
• 81 billion visits to sports websites worldwide, with total time spent reaching 9.5 billion hours.
• $3.3 billion in digital advertising spending, increasing by 26.1% year over year. Advertising impressions reached 524 billion (+11.5%).

The sports audience is gradually shifting from web platforms toward mobile applications, while advertising investment in sports continues to grow significantly faster than audience metrics.

How BYYD helps sports brands reach mobile audiences

As mobile engagement becomes increasingly important for sports fans, brands need advertising solutions that combine precise targeting, engaging formats, and measurable results.

BYYD helps sports brands connect with relevant audiences through mobile advertising, using data-driven targeting and interactive ad formats.

For example, to drive visitors to the offline store Hummel Mindful Training, BYYD launched a campaign using a Rich Media banner format.

The campaign successfully achieved its objectives and delivered a CTR of 2.14%, demonstrating the ability of interactive mobile formats to attract attention and encourage user engagement.

By combining audience targeting, optimization, and creative mobile solutions, BYYD enables sports brands to engage fans throughout the customer journey, from building awareness to driving real-world actions.

Check out our case studies and send us an email – let’s launch your next campaign together.

Found this helpful? Share it with your friends and colleagues!

For consultations and partnership inquiries:

• Submit a request on our website 
• Email us at hello@byyd.me