• 2020 was a record-setting year for mobile games and non-game apps on the apps stores.
• Spending on the App Store reaches $72.3b and $38.6b on Google Play.
• Zoom saw the highest number of first-time installs in 2020 on the App Store, growing 1,686% year on year to 212.5m installs.
• WhatsApp saw the most installs on Google’s platform, reaching more than 598 million installs.

Consumers spending on in-app purchases, subscriptions, and premium apps on Apple’s App Store and Google Play soared to nearly $111 billion globally, registering a 30.2 per cent year-over-year growth from 2019’s $85.2 billion.

According to Sensor Tower data, 2020 was a record-setting year for mobile games and non-game apps on the apps stores.

Faced with antitrust allegations and the wrath of (some) app makers, Apple extended an olive branch to its developer community in November by introducing the App Store Small Business Program, which reduces the company’s app store commission from 30 to 15 per cent for developers earning less than $1 million a year.

Ever since the App Store was launched in 2008, Apple has taken a 30-per cent cut on app sales, in-app purchases of digital content and subscriptions made via iOS apps (the latter dropping to 15 per cent after the first year), which has lately drawn the attention of competition watchdogs, especially in cases where Apple competes with third-party app makers (e.g. Apple Music vs. Spotify).

Globally, consumer spending on the App Store reached $72.3 billion, up 30.3 per cent year on year from $55.5 billion in 2019. As in previous years, this exceeded the amount users spent on Google Play, which grew 30 per cent year on year from $29.7 billion in 2019 to $38.6 billion.

The App Store generated 87.3 per cent more in consumer spending than the Play store, and both platforms experienced roughly the same year-on-year growth.

The spending gap between the platforms remained relatively flat compared to 2019.

Aside from games, entertainment category apps saw the most user spending on the App Store, growing 29.3 per cent year on year to $5.3 billion.

On Google Play, social was the highest-earning category, climbing 71.4 per cent year on year to $1.2 billion last year from $700 million in 2019.

The non-game app that generated the most revenue globally on the App Store in 2020 was TikTok, including Douyin on iOS in China, growing more than 600 per cent year on year to $1.2 billion on that marketplace.

On Android devices, Google One generated the most revenue last year, climbing 41.9 per cent year on year to $444 million on Google Play in 2020.

Zoom saw the highest number of first-time installs in 2020 on the App Store, growing 1,686 per cent year on year to 212.5 million installs on that platform.

On Google’s platform, WhatsApp saw the most installs last year, reaching more than 598 million installs on that marketplace.

A record of five mobile games earned more than $1 billion in 2020. The category as a whole also reached new heights, generating $79.5 billion last year across both app stores globally. This is up 26 per cent from slightly more than $63 billion in 2019 and represents 71.7 per cent of all in-app spending for the year.

Games represent majority of spending

Although mobile games generated more revenue this year, its share of overall consumer spending declined approximately two percentage points from 2019, reflecting the growth of categories such as Entertainment in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, games still represented the majority of spending on both stores, accounting for 65.8 per cent of iOS revenue and 82.6 per cent of revenue on Google Play.

On the App Store, users spent $47.6 billion globally, up 25.3 per cent year on year from $38 billion in 2019.

Games on Google Play saw nearly $32 billion in worldwide consumer spending in 2020, up 27 per cent year on year from a little more than $25 billion in the previous year.

Games were downloaded approximately 10.1 billion times globally on the App Store in 2020, up 9.8 per cent year on year.