App downloads defy the odds by booming during coronavirus

Worldwide app downloads have boomed over the past three months, hitting an all-time high of 37.8 billion downloads, a new report by app analytics platform Sensor Tower claims.

Of that number, 9.1 billion were from the App Store. The remaining 28.7 billion was from the Google Play store for Android users. Both saw considerable growth versus last year. That’s despite the effects of coronavirus and the subsequent economic downturn.

The top iOS app (as well as the top app overall) for the quarter was Zoom. Given the massive number of people using Zoom for videoconferencing while working from home, that’s not particularly surprising. Sensor Tower says that Zoom “shattered” the record for App Store installs during Q2 2020 with almost 94 million installs.

This beat TikTok‘s record, established in the first three months of the year, of 67 million downloads. TikTok, however, did manage to increase its number of installs in the three month period. Approximately 71 million TikTok downloads took place. That equates to 154% year-over-year growth. No other non-game app managed to beat 50 million installs in the quarter.

The most popular game for the quarter was Save the Girl!, a puzzle game in which players must solve brain teasers to save a girl from being chased by villains. Every level in the game has a scenario in which you have to solve challenges to proceed. The game had more than 14 million downloads on iOS during the quarter. It (just) beat out PUBG Mobile in second place worldwide. In the U.S., the second most popular game on iOS was Roblox.

App Store is no. 2 on downloads, no. 1 on revenue

While Google Play may massively dwarf the App Store in terms of downloads, that’s largely because of the much higher number of Android device owners. In terms of revenue, the App Store still earns a lot more than Google Play. In the first half of 2020, user spending in the App Store surged to $32.8 billion. On Google Play, that number was markedly less — hitting just $17.3 billion during the same period.