Global App Spending Grew 30.2% in 2020 to $111 Billion [Chart]

Global app spending grew 30.2% in 2020 to a record high, according to a new Sensor Tower report. Consumers spent nearly $111 billion on in-app purchases, subscriptions, and premium apps across both the App Store and the Google Play app store.

Globally, consumer spending on the App Store reached $72.3 billion, up 30.3 percent Y/Y from $55.5 billion in 2019. As in previous years, this exceeded the amount users spent on Google Play, which grew 30 percent Y/Y from $29.7 billion in 2019 to $38.6 billion. The App Store generated 87.3 percent more in consumer spending than the Play store, and both platforms experienced roughly the same Y/Y growth. The spending gap between the platforms remained relatively flat compared to 2019.

The top non-game revenue generating app was TikTok, followed by YouTube, Tinder, Tencent Video, and Disney+.

Aside from games, Entertainment category apps saw the most user spending on the App Store, growing 29.3 percent Y/Y to $5.3 billion. On Google Play, Social was the highest-earning category, climbing 71.4 percent Y/Y to $1.2 billion last year from $700 million in 2019. TikTok, including Douyin on iOS in China, was the non-game app that generated the most revenue globally on the App Store in 2020, growing more than 600 percent Y/Y to $1.2 billion on that marketplace. On Android devices, Google One generated the most revenue last year, climbing 41.9 percent Y/Y to $444 million on Google Play in 2020.

The top revenue generating game was PUBG Mobile, followed by Arena of Valor, Pokemon GO, Coin Master, and Roblox.

On the App Store, users spent $47.6 billion globally, up 25.3 percent Y/Y from $38 billion in 2019. Honor of Kings from Tencent was the highest grossing iOS game, generating $2.5 billion last year on that platform, up 47 percent Y/Y from $1.7 billion. Games on Google Play saw nearly $32 billion in worldwide consumer spending in 2020, up 27 percent Y/Y from a little more than $25 billion in the previous year. The highest grossing title on Google’s platform was Moon Active’s Coin Master, which saw its revenue increase 122 percent Y/Y to $799 million from 2019’s total of $360 million.

Much more detail in the full report linked below.

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