Pakistani apps rack up 4.6 billion downloads worldwide as Google hosts Think Apps 2026 at Lahore Fort

LAHORE: Google brought its annual app and gaming gathering, Think Apps 2026, to the UNESCO-listed Lahore Fort on Thursday, drawing Pakistan’s leading developers, gaming studios and regional industry experts to talk about one question — how artificial intelligence can help local studios grow abroad and build businesses that last.

The headline number set the tone. Products built by Pakistani studios generated 4.6 billion downloads worldwide over the past 12 months, Google said, a figure that underlines how far the country’s developers now reach beyond their home market. It is a sharp contrast with the industry’s beginnings: a sector that once employed fewer than 30 people now supports more than 30,000 professionals, with studios such as Game District and Funsol held up as examples of what local teams can build for global audiences.

“The global impact of Pakistan’s developers reflects the world-class talent and ambition driving the local ecosystem,” said Farhan Qureshi, Google’s Cluster Director for Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand and Frontier Markets. Empowering developers with cutting-edge AI, he said, is meant to help studios build high-value products, grow sustainably and lift Pakistan’s place in the global digital economy.

Sessions worked through Google’s “Build, Yield and Scale” roadmap — Google Cloud AI for development, Google Ads and AdMob for user acquisition and monetisation, and Google Play, with more than three billion monthly users, as the distribution channel. Google also pointed to its longer commitments in Pakistan: training 100,000 developers in AI by 2028, enabling local production of 500,000 Chromebooks, and online safety training already delivered to 200,000 families through its Digital Pasban programme.