Global consumer spending and first-time installs of mobile apps climbed to USD33.6 billion and 35.7 billion across Apple’s App Store and Google Play in the third quarter of 2021.
According to Sensor Tower Store Intelligence data, the mobile market has experienced continued lift during the ongoing pandemic, although year-over-year growth has slowed since the initial surge in adoption and spending in Q2 2020 at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This quarter, consumer spending climbed an impressive 15.1% year-on-year from USD29.2 billion in Q3 2020 to USD35.7 billion, but that still pales in comparison to last year’s 32% y/y growth.
The growth was driven mainly by Google Play, which saw consumer spending grow 18.6% y/y to USD12.1 billion from USD10.2 billion. Apple’s App Store saw more modest growth, but it saw higher consumer spending with revenue climbing 13.2% to USD21.5 billion from USD19 billion. As in prior periods, consumers spent about 1.8 times as much on Apple’s marketplace when compared to Google’s.
TikTok continued to reign as the highest-earning app globally. It was No1 on App Store and No4 in Google Play. Consumer spending in the app, which includes Douyin on iOS in China, experienced 41 percent Y/Y growth.
The highest earning app on Google Play happens to be Google One. Piccoma, the Japanese manga service app, was No2 overall – seventh in App Store, but second in Google Play. YouTube, Google One and Disney+ made it No3-5 in the global revenue list.
Across both stores, installs declined 1.9% to 35.7 billion from 36.4 billion in Q3 2021. This was true on Google Play as well as on Apple’s App Store. In the first half of the year, Google’s marketplace saw y/y growth in app adoption, perhaps due to the prevalent use of Android devices in areas of the world still drastically affected by COVID-19. However, as vaccines become more widely available, that trend may very well have begun to normalise.
According to Sensor Tower estimates, first-time app installs in 3Q21 declined 1.2% on Apple’s App Store from 8.2 billion to 8.1 billion. Google’s marketplace saw a decline of 2.1% from 28.2 billion to 27.6 billion.
TikTok, which recently crossed 3 billion installs globally, was the No1 downloaded app in the world, followed by Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Messenger – all owned by Facebook.
The year-on-year growth seen in 3Q21 in mobile gaming trailed the 17.9% growth in 1H21. It
grew 7.7% to USD22.4 billion globally in 3Q21, driven primarily by Google’s marketplace. Consumer spending in mobile games on the App Store grew 5.6% to USD13.1 billion from USD12.4 billion, while Google Play spending climbed 10.7 percent y/y to USD9.3 billion from USD8.4 billion in the year-ago period.
Tencent’s PUBG Mobile, including its Chinese version Game For Peace, maintained its spot as the top grossing mobile game globally after passing USD5 billion in lifetime earnings in Q1 2021. In the third quarter, consumer spending in the game climbed 11 percent year-on-year and it was No2 on App Store and No7 in Google Play.
Tencent’s Honor of Kings and miHoYo’s mega hit Genshin Impact were No2 and No3. Launched a year ago at the end of 3Q20, Genshin Impact has already generated USD2 billion in consumer spending in its first year.
