After slowing in 2022, the global app economy continued to recover in 2024, at least in terms of consumer spending. In 2024, global consumer spending on mobile apps and games across the App Store and Google Play reached $127 billion, an increase of 15.7% year over year. But new data from app intelligence firm Appfigures says those increases were driven by Apple's App Store as spending on Google Play declined.
While spending was rising, there were other worrying signs regarding the overall health of the app ecosystem. This year, global app downloads decreased by 2.3% compared to 2023, reaching nearly 110 billion. According to the data, this downward trend was seen in both app stores.
This isn't the first time we've seen signs that the massive growth in the app ecosystem may finally be starting to level out. As the app economy has matured, there has been a recent focus on extracting revenue from the apps consumers already use through recurring subscriptions, rather than forcing them to download new or paid apps. I am.
Remarkably, Appfigures found that while only 5% of apps worldwide offered subscriptions last year, they accounted for 48% of app revenue across both app stores. Furthermore, the top 10 grossing apps globally generated 13.7% of all consumer spending, up 1.2% from 12.5% in 2023.
Meanwhile, much of the innovation happening today is in the field of AI. This trend has been largely ignored by Apple when choosing its overall app of the year for the past few years. Video app Kino won in 2024, and hiking app AllTrails won in 2023.
Downloads are down worldwide
Image credit: Appfigures
Meanwhile, a decline in app downloads was a trend seen in both app markets.
Of the 110 billion total downloads in 2024, iOS downloads accounted for 28.3 billion installs, down 1.1% year over year. Downloads of Android apps on Google Play decreased by 2.6% to 81.4 billion. A separate report found that app downloads remained roughly flat last year.
The drop in downloads is also partially related to how Apple and Google Play manage their app stores in 2024.
In particular, Google has cracked down on spam and other low-quality apps over the last year, resulting in a significant 60% drop in new app releases on Google Play. This is likely due to increased requirements for developers to test and review apps.
The U.S. also supported growing global download trends, with U.S. iOS downloads down 5.3% to 6.1 billion and U.S. Google Play app downloads down 0.7% to 4.4 billion. Total app downloads in the U.S. fell 3.4% annually to about 10.6 billion.
The most downloaded app in 2024 was Instagram, not TikTok, with nearly 640 million installs. It is also the most searched app in the US, along with Instagram, other top social apps such as Snapchat, Facebook, and TikTok were also searched for more than X in 2024.
However, Temu was the most downloaded app in the US with 48 million installs, according to Appfigures. Apple also recently confirmed that it is the most downloaded app in the US on the App Store.
Mexico saw the largest increase in app downloads in 2024, with 225 million more installs than in 2023.
App Store continues to make money
Image credit: Appfigures
In terms of revenue, the app economy remains profitable for both developers and app stores alike, at least in the Apple App Store.
Of the $127 billion in total global consumer spending in 2024, $91.6 billion came from the App Store, an increase of 24% year over year. Consumer spending on Google Play decreased 1.5% year over year to $35.7 billion worldwide.
The US accounts for the lion's share of the total pie, with consumer spending from US users at $47.6 billion, up 11% year over year. (Apple App Store accounted for $34.4 billion in U.S. sales, up 18.4%, while Google Play's U.S. sales declined 4.7% to $13.2 billion in 2024.)
By consumer spending, the top app globally was TikTok, with an estimated $2.5 billion across iOS and Android, excluding the Chinese app store. TikTok also became the top app in the US, raking in nearly $1.3 billion.
Brazil was the fastest growing market for consumer spending, increasing by 73% year-on-year.