Sensor Tower finds 35% of ARKit-powered apps are games, 19% are utilities, 11% are entertainment, 7% are education, 6% are photo and video, 5% are lifestyle
Context & Ripple Effects
Two months after Apple shipped ARKit with iOS 11, Sensor Tower publishes the first category census of what developers are actually building with it: games lead at 35%, followed by utilities at 19% and entertainment at 11%. The mix rhymes with the iMessage App Store's launch, where games also topped the category list before developer interest waned.
The follow-on data confirms the shape: rival tracker Apptopia counted just 825 iOS apps integrating ARKit by January, roughly 30% of them games, and Sensor Tower later found ARKit-only downloads crossing 13M in six months with nearly half going to games like AR Dragon and the measuring app CamToPlan Pro.
First-order effects
- Developers reading the census see a games-first platform: with utilities the second-largest bucket, practical AR (measurement, camera tools) is already out-punching its share against entertainment and education.
Second-order effects
- Apple's ARKit pitch to developers now rests on proving the non-game majority — 65% of the catalog — can convert into revenue, not just downloads, or the platform risks repeating the iMessage App Store's fade in developer attention.
Third-order effects
- If every new Apple SDK surface debuts games-heavy and thins out after the novelty window, the durable value sits with utility categories — consistent with Sensor Tower's later finding that non-game apps overtook games in consumer spend by 2025, driven by GenAI rather than AR.
The trend: New mobile SDK platforms launch with a games-skewed catalog that either rebalances toward utilities or fades as developer interest cools.