Global mobile app adoption and consumer spending on in-app purchases, premium apps, and subscriptions across the App Store and Google Play were both relatively flat year-over-year in Q1 2022, according to data by Sensor Tower Store Intelligence.
Worldwide consumer spending on in-app purchases, premium apps, and subscriptions in apps and mobile games stood at $32.5 billion, a 0.6 per cent growth from $32.3 billion in Q1 2021. Consumer spending remained almost flat YoY.
Apple’s marketplace generated more than double the revenue of Google Play’s, recording a 5.8 per cent YoY growth, reaching $21.8 billion, up from $20.6 billion recorded during the same period last year. Google Play recorded approximately $10.7 billion in consumer spending, down 8.5 per cent YoY from $11.7 billion in Q1 2021.
The top-grossing non-game app was TikTok, including Douyin on iOS in China, maintaining its position. It also topped the charts on the App Store. The app generated $821 million in consumer spending this quarter across both Stores. On Google Play, it stood second to Google One, which topped the chart with nearly $250 million.
In terms of downloads, first-time downloads across the App Store and Google Play grew 1.1 per cent YoY in Q1 2022, reaching 36.8 billion downloads. Both platforms witnessed approximately the same growth, with Apple’s marketplace growing 1.2 per cent YoY to 8.5 billion downloads and Google’s store growing 1.1 per cent YoY to 28.3 billion.
TikTok recorded the highest number of downloads across both marketplaces combined as well as on Apple’s marketplace, while Meta maintained its lead on Google Play.
In 2021, Facebook was the most downloaded app on Google Play. This past quarter, that spot went to Meta’s Instagram, which recorded 125.8 million first-time installs. Across the App Store and Google Play, TikTok recorded over 186 million installs globally.
Global app usage
In terms of app usage, the average number of monthly active users in top apps grew 4.8 per cent YoY, with certain categories, such as Medical apps, more than doubling compared to Q1 2021.
As per an analysis of the top 100 most-used mobile apps worldwide in each category, Medical apps recorded the highest YoY growth in usage with the average MAUs more than doubling in the top apps.
Navigation apps witnessed the second-highest growth in usage, up 23.5 per cent YoY, followed by Travel with nearly 19 per cent YoY growth.
Comparatively, in the previous two first quarters, Business apps had recorded the highest growth. In Q1 2021, usage of the top Business apps grew 95.3 per cent YoY and in Q1 2020, the category recorded a 42.4 per cent YoY growth.
“The uptick in Navigation and Travel app usage in Q1 2022 can be attributed to consumers making more trips now that the pandemic is somewhat controlled in parts of the world,” Sensor Tower said.
“The increase in MAUs among the top Medical apps was mainly driven by a surge in usage of Covid-related apps such as Indonesia’s PeduliLindungi, South Korea’s vaccine passport app COOV, and Brazil’s Conecte SUS. It could also be a result of users becoming acclimated to turning to mobile devices for such purposes” it said.
Almost all categories analysed in the report witnessed an increase in usage, except for weather, lifestyle, news, and games.
Mobile games recorded the highest decrease in usage compared to Q1 2021, declining 3.8 per cent YoY.
Mobile games
Consumer spending in mobile games was down 7.1 per cent YoY to $21 billion in Q1 2022, with both the App Store and Google Play recording less revenue when compared to the year-ago period.
Mobile games on Apple’s platform recorded around $12.9 billion, down 2.3 per cent YoY, while Google Play witnessed a 13.8 per cent YoY decline in its mobile game revenue to $8.1 billion.
“The top three highest-grossing mobile games overall as well as on the App Store all came from Chinese publishers this quarter,” as per the report.
Tencent’s Honor of Kings and PUBG Mobile—including its Chinese localisation Game for Peace took the first and the second spot, respectively with $735.4 million and $643 million generated across both stores. MiHoYo’s Genshin Impact came in third with $551 million in player spending.
NCSoft’s Lineage W was the top earner on Google Play, followed by Moon Active’s Coin Master and King’s Candy Crush Saga.
Worldwide downloads of mobile games increased 2.1 per cent YoY during the quarter to reach 14.4 billion, driven primarily by Google Play, which grew 2.5 percent YoY to 12.1 billion first-time downloads this quarter. App Store game installs remained flat YoY at 2.3 billion.
Garena’s massively popular battle royale title Garena Free Fire saw the most downloads across the App Store and Google Play as well as on Google’s marketplace, with 71.2 million installs across both platforms,’ as per the report.
It was followed by Sybo Games’ Subway Surfers with 66.4 million installs across both stores. It also topped the charts on the App Store. The third most downloaded title overall was Homa Games’ Merge Master – Dinosaur Fusion with 49.4 million installs.
Though it wasn’t the viral Wordle by Josh Wardle’s, Goldfinch Studios’ Wordle! still managed to take the second spot on Apple’s App Store with 13.8 million installs.
“Compared to the double digit percentage growth experienced by both stores in 2021, spending growth slowed in the first quarter of 2022. This represents a normalization in the market following supercharged growth during the onset of Covid-19, as well as slowed spending possibly due to factors such as a rising cost of living,” Sensor Tower said.
“However, the categories that saw a boost due to Covid-19 have continued to see their usage climb YoY,” it said.
It is to be noted that the revenue estimates as per the report are not inclusive of local taxes, in-app advertising, or in-app user spending on mobile commerce. The estimates also do not include refunds.
Published on
April 03, 2022
