US smartphone in-app purchase spending will hit $42.31 billion this year, up 13.0% over 2021. Growth will slow to the single digits over the next few years, and spending will pass the $50 billion mark in 2025.

The average US adult will spend more time watching digital video than TV in 2024, marking a victory for connected viewing in the streaming revolution. Daily time spent with TV will fall below 3 hours next year, down more than 1 hour, 30 minutes over the course of a decade.

Spotify is the No. 1 digital audio service among US teens and adults, with 35% digital audio listeners ages 12 and older using that platform the most. YouTube Music comes in at No. 2, with 18%, while Pandora rounds out the top three at 15%.

Consumers are driven by value more than anything else. About two-thirds of consumers worldwide who had switched brands in the past year were looking for better deals. More than half were seeking better product quality.

This year, TikTok will surpass YouTube in terms of time spent by their respective adult users in the US. The short-video app will see 45.8 minutes per day from its average adult user, edging out YouTube, at 45.6 minutes.

US smartphone gamers will spend $18.83 billion on virtual goods this year, a massive sum compared with the $0.78 billion they’ll spend on subscriptions. These intangible assets make up a growing industry in the gaming world, especially as more companies—from Nike to Spotify to Chipotle—enter the metaverse via games like Roblox.

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) ecommerce growth has slowed since 2020, but the leading digitally native brands remain popular. In December 2021, the Peloton website raked in 6.7 million visits worldwide, far more than the sites of Warby Parker, Casper, and other top digital natives in the D2C space.

TikTok use is being driven by younger adults: Almost half of the app's US users will be between 18 and 34 this year, a figure that decreases as the user segment gets younger and older. For instance, just 1.8% of TikTok's users will be 65 and older in 2022.

Close to 8 in 10 branding professionals plan on allocating upfront spending to Hulu, per a survey from iSpot.tv. Peacock and YouTube TV are also major upfront spend magnets with 52% and 49% of branding professionals dishing ad dollars to those platforms, respectively.

The average number of smartphone apps used in the US will decrease over the next few years, following a pandemic-driven bump in 2020 that did not change the overall trend. This year, users will access an average of 20.4 apps each month, a figure that will drop to 19.7 in 2026.

Brand marketers worldwide are most confident in their ability to measure return on investment (ROI) in social media marketing—64% are either extremely or very confident in this. Video online and mobile was the No. 2 most effective platform for measuring ROI (59%), while search and display tied for No. 3 (54%).

Global shipments of augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) headsets will hit 16.5 million this year, up more than 5 million or 32.1% from last year. Most of these shipments are to consumers, but commercial sales are set to multiply over the next five years, driven by the opportunity for product visualization prior to purchase.

In a world of ubiquitous robocalls, brands need to differentiate themselves if they want consumers to pick up. One option could be logos. Some 69% of US adults ages 18 to 24 say they would answer a call if their phone displayed a recognizable brand logo. This figure decreases with age, and just 46% of US adults ages 55 to 62 say they'd pick up if they recognized a brand logo.

In the US, 56% of executives believe AI technology comes with either significant or somewhat significant potential risk. Another 19% view the risk as moderate, while 26% think the threat is minimal. No executive surveyed believes AI is entirely without risk.

Gamers want to see creative ads that are seamlessly integrated into gameplay. Some 41% of US gamers ages 18 to 34 would like rewards for devoting time and attention to in-game ads. Meanwhile, 32% believe ads should never interrupt a hardcore gamer’s flow.

About two-thirds of the US population ages 12 and older listens to digital audio at least once per week, up 5 percentage points from 2021. Over the past decade, that share has grown by 38 percentage points, making the weekly listenership now 192 million strong.

Across generations, retirement is the No. 1 investing goal in the US. That said, Gen Z is far more likely to focus on getting rich or learning to invest than older age groups. While 81% of baby boomer investors have their eye on retirement—no surprise as they approach that milestone—just 35% of Gen Z investors consider it their main priority.

In preparation for the cookieless future, marketers are homing in on first-party data to target consumers. Worldwide, 36% of marketing professionals expect that customer purchase history will be their most valuable source of data once third-party cookies are gone. Meanwhile, 32% see social media profiles as key, and 31% plan to rely on website registrations.

The recent influx of premium streaming services is changing the way people access movies and TV shows. In the US, 18% of US paid video subscribers purchase just one streaming service, down 17 percentage points from 2019. By contrast, 35% currently pay for four or more services, up 24 percentage points from three years ago.

In 2021, Amazon’s US average revenue per user (ARPU) for its retail media network was nearly 4 times that of Instacart and close to 9 times that of Walmart.