The global app economy continued to recover in 2024, after an earlier slowdown in 2022 — at least in terms of consumer spending.
In 2024, global consumer spending in mobile apps and games reached $127 billion across the App Store and Google Play, up 15.7% from the prior year. However, those increases were driven by Apple’s App Store, as Google Play spending declined, according to new data from app intelligence firm Appfigures.
As the app economy matures, the more recent focus has been on extracting revenue from the apps consumers are already using via ongoing subscriptions, rather than driving them to download new apps or paid apps.
Of note, only 5% of apps worldwide offered subscriptions last year, but they accounted for 48% of the app revenue across both app stores, according to Appfigures.
In addition, the top 10 earning apps globally generated 13.7% of all consumer spending, up 1.2% from 12.5% in 2023.
Of the total 110 billion downloads in 2024, iOS downloads accounted for 28.3 billion installs, a decline of 1.1% year-over-year. Android app downloads on Google Play were down 2.6% to 81.4 billion. Last year, app downloads were largely flat, another report had found.
In part, the decline in downloads also has to do with how Apple and Google Play managed their app stores in 2024.
Google, in particular, cracked down on spam and other low-quality apps this past year, leading to a significant 60% reduction in the release of new apps on Google Play. This was likely driven by increased requirements for developers around app testing and app review.
Instagram, was the most downloaded app in 2024 with close to 640 million installs.
Mexico saw the biggest increase in app downloads in 2024, with 225 million more installs than in 2023.