Consumer spending on mobile games and apps is expected to reach a new all-time high of $135 billion.
According to App Annie, consumer spending across the App Store and Google Play is projected to rise almost 25 per cent from $112 billion in 2020.
Similar to previous years, for every app economy dollar spent, the App Store contributes 65 cents. Consumers spend more on games than any other app category and account for 60 per cent of iOS revenue and almost 80 per cent of Google Play revenue.
Mobile games account for $90 billion of revenue across the two leading marketplaces. Core games, inlcuding Genshin Impact and Roblox, dominated the in-app purchase consumer spend.
Hypercasual dominates downloads
Outside of mobile games, one third of consumer spending comes from entertainment and social apps, with App Annie predicting that revenue from these categories will reach $12 billion in 2022.
By the end of the year, consumers are expected to download over 140 billion new apps and games, up 10 billion from 2020, a rise of 8 per cent year-over-year. Google Play accounts for over 100 billion downloads, with the remaining accounted for by the App Store.
India was the leading region for downloads across iOS and Android devices, and is expected to account for 20 per cent of downloads this year, followed by the US (9 per cent) and Brazil (8 per cent).
Hypercasual games dominated the download charts, including Bridge Race, Hair Challenge and Project Makeover.
Recently, App Annie revealed that match three games have generated almost $1 billion in consumer spending throughout 2021, and is the fifth most popular subgenre.
