Following a setback in 2022, the worldwide app economy continued to rebound in 2024, at least in terms of consumer spending. Globally, consumers spent $127 billion on mobile applications and games in 2024, up 15.7% from the previous year across the App Store and Google Play. However, according to recent data from app intelligence company Appfigures, such increases were primarily driven by Apple’s App Store, while Google Play expenditure decreased.
Despite the increase in spending, there was still another concerning indicator regarding the general well-being of the app ecosystem. Global app downloads reached about 110 billion this year, a 2.3% decrease from 2023. The research shows that both app shops saw this declining tendency.
We’ve already noticed indications that the enormous expansion of the app ecosystem might be beginning to level out. As the app economy develops, the emphasis has shifted from encouraging users to download new apps or premium apps to generating income from the apps they already use through recurring subscriptions.
According to Appfigures, subscriptions generated 48% of app income across both app stores last year, despite only 5% of apps globally offering them. Furthermore, 13.7% of all consumer spending was generated by the top 10 earning applications worldwide, an increase of 1.2% from 2023’s 12.5%.
However, a lot of the current innovation is in the area of artificial intelligence (AI), a subject that Apple mostly ignored when choosing its overall App of the Year for the previous two years. The 2024 and 2023 winners were the video app Kino and the trekking app AllTrails, respectively.
Downloads decline globally
On the other hand, both app marketplaces showed a trend of declining app downloads.
In 2024, iOS downloads accounted for 28.3 billion installs out of a total of 110 billion downloads, a 1.1% decrease from the previous year. Google Play had a 2.6% decrease in Android app downloads, totaling 81.4 billion. According to another estimate, app downloads were essentially flat last year.
The way Google Play and Apple handled their app stores in 2024 also contributed to the drop in downloads.
This past year, Google in particular took action against spam and other subpar apps, which resulted in a notable 60% decrease in the number of new apps released on Google Play. This was probably brought on by stricter guidelines for developers regarding app evaluation and testing.
The U.S. also helped push the larger global trend down, as U.S. iOS downloads declined 5.3% to 6.1 billion and U.S. Google Play app downloads dropped 0.7% to 4.4 billion. In total, U.S. app downloads declined by 3.4% in the year, reaching approximately 10.6 billion. Instagram, not TikTok, was the most downloaded app in 2024 with close to 640 million installs. It was also the most searched-for app in the U.S. Along with Instagram, other top social apps including Snapchat, Facebook, and TikTok were also searched for more than X in 2024. However, Temu was the most downloaded app in the U.S. with 48 million installs, Appfigures found. Apple recently confirmed it was the U.S.’s most-downloaded app on its App Store, too.
App Store continues to make money
At least on the Apple App Store, the app economy continues to generate profits for both app shops and creators.
In 2024, the App Store accounted for $91.6 billion of the $127 billion in global consumer expenditure, a 24% increase from the previous year. Globally, Google Play user spending fell 1.5% year over year to $35.7 billion.
With $47.6 billion in consumer expenditure from U.S. customers, up 11% year over year, the U.S. accounted for a sizable share of that total pie. In 2024, Google Play’s U.S. income dropped 4.7% to $13.2 billion, while the Apple App Store contributed $34.4 billion, an 18.4% increase.
TikTok was the most popular app worldwide in terms of user expenditure, with an estimated $2.5 billion across iOS and Android (excluding Chinese app stores). With almost $1.3 billion in revenue, TikTok was also the most popular app in the United States.
With a 73% annual increase in consumer expenditure, Brazil was the market with the greatest rate of growth.
SOURCE: TECH CRUNCH
