What pandemic? According to a new report from app analytics firm Sensor Tower, global spending on mobile apps across both iOS and Android hit an astonishing $111 billion in 2020. That’s a massive 30% growth from 2019.
The overwhelming spend — $72.3 billion — was on iOS, despite the larger number of Android devices. Google Play revenue, meanwhile, came in at $38.6 billion. Both app stores showed approximately the same level of growth over the year.
In total, first-time installs of new apps rose to almost 143 billion across the year. Games were, as ever, the most popular category. However, non-gaming apps still came in at 86.7 billion installs in the year. The biggest growth category for non-gaming apps on iOS was the Photo & Video category. Installs increased from 2.3 billion in 2019 to 2.5 billion last year.
The top iOS titles in the gaming category in terms of downloads were Among Us!, followed by PUBG Mobile, Call of Duty: Mobile, Subway Surfers, and Brain Out. In terms of revenue, Arena of Valor took the number one spot.
The top non-gaming app in terms of both revenue and downloads was TikTok. Despite the app’s tumultuous year, this is little surprise given that it was the no. 1 App Store app virtually every month since the start of the year. Zoom was number two on the “most downloaded” list.
What was your most-used app of last year? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: Sensor Tower
