An App a Day: The Business Behind Apps
Sunday, March 22, 2020 4:39
% of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents.
An App a Day: The Business Behind Apps
Anyone with a smartphone has probably downloaded hundreds of apps, if not more. However, while we use apps everyday for various purposes, including gaming and non-gaming, how often do we stop to think about the business behind apps, and how much revenue they bring in to their relevant publishers?
In this article, we’ll give you the latest stats when it comes to top grossing apps, across both the App Store and Google Play.
Even for those of you who might already have some idea of what the most popular apps are, the article will provide some insight into the main app categories and the most downloaded and lucrative in each of these.
Insight into the Overall App Industry
Before we investigate each of the different app categories, let’s take a look at the overall app industry, by comparing how the industry has grown year on year (Y/Y) from 2018 to 2019.
According to data from Sensor Tower Store Intelligence, mobile consumers spent an estimated $21.9 billion on apps from both the App Store and Google Play in the third quarter or 2019.
This means that there has been a 22.9 percent increase in gross revenue compared to the third quarter in 2018, which is significant. Note that these figures are based on the money that mobile consumers spend on in-app purchases, subscriptions and paying for premium apps.
(Also note that these figures do not include those for mobile commerce apps).
Overall, from these figures, it’s clear that the business behind apps is growing, and that there is a growing audience for mobile gaming developers to cater for.
Understanding Different App Categories
On that note, let’s take a look at some of the most popular mobile app categories and some of the most popular apps in each one of them.
Mobile Gaming
Mobile gaming is definitely the most popular app category, and the revenue figures speak for themselves, as total global mobile game gross revenue increased by 20 percent from 2018 to 2019. To clarify, mobile gaming grew from $13.6 billion in Q3 2018 to $16.3 billion in Q3 2019.
If we take a look at combined downloads across Google Play and the App Store, there was an increase in 17.6 percent from 9.5 billion in Q3 2018 to 11.1 billion in Q3 2019.
In this category, the most lucrative games are PUBG Mobile, which was last year’s top grossing game, making $496 million in Q3 2019 alone, which means that their revenue grew by 652 percent Y/Y. After that, in terms of revenue, comes Honor of Kings and Fate/Grand Order, which generated $377 million and $354 million in revenue, respectively, during the same quarter.
When it comes to the most number of downloads, the most popular game is Fun Race 3D, PUBG Mobile and Nintendo’s Mario Kart. In fact, Fun Race 3D generated 123 million downloads in Q3 2019, which means it had 29 million more first-time installs than PUBG mobile, which is quite staggering. Downloads for this particular game were also up 240 percent quarter on quarter (Q/Q), which shows phenomenal growth.
Non-Gaming Apps
In the world of non-gaming apps, dating app Tinder takes the top spot in terms of revenue, by having generated approximately $233 million from user spend over last year, which is an increase of 7 percent Y/Y.
After Tinder comes the popular streaming app Netflix, and then YouTube, which increased in-app spending by 16 percent Y/Y to $164 million in the latest findings. In addition to this, YouTube revenue has impressively never seen a quarterly decline when it comes to user spending.
In the downloads category, TikTok surpassed Facebook with nearly 177 million downloads in Q3 2019. This means it is now the second most downloaded app in the quarter above Messenger, the Facebook app, and Instagram. If you’re wondering what the most downloaded app is in the non-gaming category, that title goes to the WhatsApp chat app.
App Store Versus Google Play
To understand the amount of competition in the business world of apps, it’s also interesting to look at some comparative figures between the App Store and Google Play.
According to the same recents stats source that we have quoted above, the App Store generated the most mobile revenue last quarter with $14.2 billion of user spending, which has grown 22.3 percent from $11.6 billion in Q3 2018.
On the other hand, Google Play, generated $7.7 billion in revenue, which is an increase in 24 percent Y/Y from $6.2 billion in the previous year.
These stats might seem to confirm that the App Store is currently more successful, however, Google Play also generated nearly three-times more first-time app installs in Q3 2019 than the App Store, which means that these statistics could change in the year ahead.
Final Thoughts on the Business of Apps
In this article, we have given a brief overview of the overall mobile app industry, as well as taken a look at the two main app categories, gaming and non-gaming, and some of the most popular and lucrative apps in these categories. After that, we briefly looked at some comparative stats between the App Store and Google Play.
In conclusion, it’s interesting to take a look at the figures Y/Y and Q/Q and compare performances between all of the different apps and stores. However, with such high growth percentages for so many of them, it’s likely that we’ll probably see some changes over the year ahead.
Either way, it’s clear that the business behind apps is becoming something to monitor closely, as the nature of online mobile app development constantly shifts to cater towards changing consumer needs and demands.
Before It’s News® is a community of individuals who report on what’s going on around them, from all around the world.
Anyone can join.
Anyone can contribute.
Anyone can become informed about their world.
"United We Stand" Click Here To Create Your Personal Citizen Journalist Account Today, Be Sure To Invite Your Friends.
Anyone can join.
Anyone can contribute.
Anyone can become informed about their world.
"United We Stand" Click Here To Create Your Personal Citizen Journalist Account Today, Be Sure To Invite Your Friends.
Please Help Support BeforeitsNews by trying our Natural Health Products below!
Order by Phone at 888-809-8385 or online at https://mitocopper.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST
Order by Phone at 866-388-7003 or online at https://www.herbanomic.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST
Order by Phone at 866-388-7003 or online at https://www.herbanomics.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST
Humic & Fulvic Trace Minerals Complex - Nature's most important supplement! Vivid Dreams again!
HNEX HydroNano EXtracellular Water - Improve immune system health and reduce inflammation.
Ultimate Clinical Potency Curcumin - Natural pain relief, reduce inflammation and so much more.
MitoCopper - Bioavailable Copper destroys pathogens and gives you more energy. (See Blood Video)
Oxy Powder - Natural Colon Cleanser! Cleans out toxic buildup with oxygen!
Nascent Iodine - Promotes detoxification, mental focus and thyroid health.
Smart Meter Cover - Reduces Smart Meter radiation by 96%! (See Video).
MOST RECENT
HELP KEEP NEWS FREE
DONATE
HERE
| Online: | |
| Visits: | 1,599,581,491 |
| Stories: | 8,139,559 |
Wanted: Citizen Reporters,
Whistler Blowers, Insiders
Whistler Blowers, Insiders
"Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." Zechariah 4:6
Today's Top Stories
Featured
Top Global
Top Alternative
The biggest discovery for me this year was this app – https://kukapp.com. It is a very easy app builder which helped me create a well designed mobile app for my spotify store just in few hours. The fees are affordable too so highly recommend it.