Consumer spend on Apple, Google app stores to hit $133 billion in 2021

The global consumer spending on Apple App Store and Google Play Store is set to reach $133 billion in 2021, a 19.7 per cent (on-year) growth from $111.1 billion in 2020, a new report has said.

Globally, consumer spending on the Apple App Store will reach $85.1 billion up 17.7 per cent from $72.3 billion in 2020.

Although users have spent less on Google Play, that platform will see more year-on-year growth, climbing 23.5 per cent to $47.9 billion from $38.8 billion, according to data by Sensor Tower, which provides market intelligence and analytics for the mobile app economy.

"The two platforms` spending relative to each other remains the same as in 2020, with the App Store seeing about 1.8 times the revenue as Google`s marketplace," said Stephanie Chan, mobile insights strategist.

TikTok, including Douyin on iOS in China, will maintain its dominance as the non-game app that saw the most revenue across both app stores combined.

The ByteDance-owned short video platform passed $3 billion in lifetime revenue earlier this year. In the first 11 months of 2021, the app saw $2 billion in revenue, up 67 per cent on-year from $1.2 billion.

By the end of the year, Sensor Tower forecasts that the app will see $2.3 billion in spending, bringing its lifetime total to $3.8 billion.

TikTok is the most downloaded app on the App Store for 2021, racking up 745.9 million installs across both app stores.

On Google Play, Facebook tops the charts with about 500.9 million installs on that marketplace alone.

On Android devices, Google One continued to see the most revenue in 2021.

By the end of 2021, the app will reach $1 billion in consumer spending, up 123 per cent from $448.5 million in 2020, the report said on Tuesday.

First-time installs remain relatively flat when compared to 2020, growing 0.5 per cent across the App Store and Google Play to 143.6 billion in 2021 from 142.9 billions 2020.

"This is driven mainly by app adoption on Google Play, which will see installs climb 2.6 per cent to 111.3 billion from 108.5 billion; Apple`s marketplace will generate about 32.3 billion installs this year, down 6.1 per cent from 34.4 billion," Chan said.