TikTok is off to a great start in 2021, as app analytics platform Sensor Tower notes that it was the top grossing, non-gaming app worldwide for January. In total, users spent $128 million on TikTok during the month, an increase of 3.8x in revenue from January last year.
The overwhelming majority of spending (82%) came from China, where TikTok is known as Douyin. The United States came in a distant second place — making up 8% of TikTok’s revenue. This is a single percentage point more than the U.S. represented in December.
TikTok topped both the iOS App Store and Google Play App Store for the month of January.
The report doesn’t break down the revenue split between iOS and Android. However, iOS typically pulls in significantly more cash for devs than Android, despite the fact that it runs on a smaller number of handsets.
Photo: Sensor Tower
After TikTok, the second highest-earning iOS app of the month was YouTube, followed by Tinder.
TikTok has held a strangle grip on worldwide app downloads over the past year. Last year, it came in at the No. 1 slot in eight months out of 12. Its lowest-ranking month was January 2020, when it came in at No. 6. However, from April 2020 it remained No. 1 for every month except August, when it was briefly overtaken again by YouTube.
Source: Sensor Tower
