As the year 2021 comes to a close we tend to look back on the biggest stories and developments over the past 12 months. SensorTower published its yearly mobile app spending report and it shows a clear pattern – both Android and iOS users are spending more money on apps compared to 2020.
The total sum spent on mobile apps in 2021 reached $133 billion which is about 20% more than the sum for 2020 which was estimated at $111.1 billion. The new app spending data was compiled based on projected spending between January 1 and December 31, 2021.
Apple’s App Store still accounts for a larger chunk of the total with $85.1 billion spent by users or 17.7% more than last year. Google Play store earned $47.9 billion over the past 12 months which is 23.5% more than its totals for 2020. At its current state, Apple’s App Store is earning 1.8 times more revenue compared to the Google Play Store.
Total app installs on both app stores increased by 0.5% in 2021 with Google Play totaling 111.3 billion installs while the App Store managed 32.3 billion in comparison. TikTok is the most downloaded app of 2021 across both iOS and Android. Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger follow while Telegram, Snapchat, Zoom, CapCut and Spotify round out the top 10.
TikTok also earned the crown as the highest-earning app of 2021 with SensorTower forecasting a staggering $2.3 billion in spending on the platform by the end of the year.
