Apple Pay usage has doubled in physical stores over the past year, yet the mobile wallet still processes only 1 in 10 eligible transactions and faces intensifying competition from rivals that are expanding even faster.
The findings come from “Apple Pay @11: Usage Is Up, but Competitors Are Gaining Ground,” a PYMNTS Intelligence report examining the state of Apple Pay usage in 2025. The study draws on insights from a survey of 3,339 U.S. consumers conducted from Aug. 14 to Sept. 22, 2025. While Apple Pay has grown its total sales volume from $268 billion to $450 billion this year, the platform accounts for just 10% of eligible in-store purchases and under 5% of transactions overall. When consumers do use mobile wallets to pay, they increasingly fund those purchases through digital balances alongside traditional credit and debit cards.
Key Findings:
- Mobile wallet usage in stores has surged, with 31% of shoppers now using them weekly compared to 14% in August 2024. Apple Pay led this growth, with 16% of consumers reporting they used the service in stores in the last week, double the 8% share from 2024.
- Competitors are gaining ground rapidly. Google Pay usage more than doubled, while PayPal and Cash App both nearly doubled their in-store usage over the same period. Despite Apple Pay maintaining the largest user base, the accelerated growth of competing platforms is narrowing the gap.
- Digital cash balances are emerging as a major funding source. Between 2023 and 2025, the share of consumers who used digital wallets for their last in-store transaction funded by digital balances rose from 1.0% to 3.7%. Debit cards remain the most popular funding method, but stored balances now rank as a close second.
The report reveals that convenience drives initial adoption while security concerns motivate continued use. Among new mobile wallet users, the most common reason for trying the technology was that it was the easiest or fastest option available. Generation Z consumers proved especially motivated by speed and ease, while baby boomers more often cited wanting to try a new payment method or believing it to be more secure than physical cards.
Millennials lead mobile wallet adoption across all channels. Nearly half of millennials reported using a mobile wallet in a store in the last week, up 112% from last year. Baby boomers lag behind but are gaining share at a rapid clip. Only 7.9% of boomers used mobile wallets in the last week, but this figure marks a 147% increase from 2024.
The data also shows mobile wallets are close to overtaking cash for in-store payments. Between 2022 and 2025, the share of consumers who made their most recent in-store payment using digital wallets rose from 0.9% to 11.8%. Cash usage fell from 17.6% to 12.1% over the same period.
Despite these gains, digital wallets have not meaningfully displaced debit or credit cards as the underlying payment method. Debit remains the most common way consumers fund their mobile wallet purchases, and between 2023 and 2025 the overall share of consumers using debit cards for their last in-store transaction held roughly flat. The same pattern emerged for credit cards, suggesting mobile wallets are primarily cannibalizing cash rather than plastic.
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