App Store spending could more than double by 2025

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App Store spending
How the App Store could rise in the next few years.
Photo: Sensor Tower

After booming during lockdown in 2020, the App Store isn’t likely to slow down over the next five years, according to a new report.

App analytics platform Sensor Tower’s projections indicate App Store spending could hit $185 billion per year in the next half-decade. That’s compared to $72 billion in 2020.


Sensor Tower serves up a couple of interesting predictions about the app economy in its report, “5-Year Market Forecast: App Spending Will Climb to $270 Billion by 2025,” published Monday. One is that, through 2025, revenue from non-gaming apps could surpass the take from gaming apps. Until now, games have accounted for the bulk of App Store spending. For instance, last year games accounted for $48 billion, while non-gaming apps generated $24 billion. In other words, games are worth twice as much to the App Store as non-gaming apps.

Over the next several years, Sensor Tower thinks that balance will shift:

“Driven by the success of the subscription model, growth in App Store revenue in non-game apps over the last five years has outpaced that in mobile games. Consumer spending in non-game apps increased 4.7 times between 2016 and 2020, while it doubled in mobile games.”

The report also predicts the United States will account for a shrinking portion of App Store revenue. U.S. consumer spending on apps supposedly will grow at a “slightly slower pace” than the global trend.

How does this match up to Google Play?

During the same time frame, Sensor Tower thinks Google Play revenue will increase from its current $39 billion to $85 billion. That means global spending on apps — including premium apps, in-app purchases, and subscriptions — could hit $270 billion by 2025 on Android and iOS combined. That’s close to 2.5 times what customers spent in 2020. Apple will approximately double Google each year of the five-year projection.

Are you a developer? What are you expecting to see in terms of App Store growth over the next few years? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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