The global app economy has been on an upward trajectory in recent years, but new data suggests that growth may be slowing down. According to recent reports from app intelligence firm Appfigures, consumer spending in mobile apps and games reached $127 billion across the App Store and Google Play in 2024, a 15.7% increase from the previous year. However, this growth was largely driven by Apple's App Store, as Google Play spending declined.
Despite the rise in consumer spending, there were some worrying signs for the app ecosystem. Global app downloads decreased by 2.3% compared to 2023, reaching nearly 110 billion. This decline was seen across both app stores, indicating a shift away from driving new app downloads and towards extracting revenue from existing apps through ongoing subscriptions.
The trend of declining app downloads is not entirely new, as the app economy matures. In recent years, there has been a focus on extracting revenue from existing apps rather than driving new downloads. This is reflected in the data, which shows that only 5% of apps worldwide offered subscriptions last year, but they accounted for 48% of overall app revenue.
The top 10 earning apps globally generated 13.7% of all consumer spending, up 1.2% from 12.5% in 2023. This highlights the importance of existing apps and their ability to generate significant revenue through ongoing subscriptions.
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In addition to the decline in app downloads, there has been a shift towards AI-driven innovation in the app development space. This trend is evident in the selection of Apple's overall App of the Year over the past couple of years, which went to video app Kino and hiking app AllTrails.
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The decline in app downloads was seen across both iOS and Android platforms. iOS downloads accounted for 28.3 billion installs, a decline of 1.1% year-over-year, while Android app downloads on Google Play were down 2.6% to 81.4 billion.
Fitness App Development: Trends and Insights
The U.S. saw a significant decline in app downloads, with iOS downloads declining by 5.3% to 6.1 billion and Google Play app downloads dropping by 0.7% to 4.4 billion. In total, U.S. app downloads declined by 3.4% in the year, reaching approximately 10.6 billion.
Fitness App Development: Trends and Insights
Despite the decline in app downloads, Instagram was the most downloaded app in 2024 with close to 640 million installs, while Temu was the most downloaded app in the U.S. with 48 million installs.
Fitness App Development: Trends and Insights
Mexico saw the biggest increase in app downloads in 2024, with 225 million more installs than in 2023.