Mobile apps have become more important to consumers than ever before in navigating these times of extraordinary change. Smartphone users have relied heavily on apps not just for function but also for entertainment. Recent data shows that mobile app usage has gone up 25% in Q3 2020. Furthermore, mobile gaming has its largest quarter ever in terms of consumer spend. Learn all about mobile apps’ huge quarter in this week’s Mobile Monday!
Mobile App Usage Surged 25% YoY in Q3 2020
App Annie’s latest market data reveals that monthly time spent in mobile apps was over 180 billion hours in each month of July, August, and September 2020. This represents a 25% growth year-over-year in Q3 of this year. Mobile users have developed new app habits since the COVID-19 lockdowns causing time spent up to increase across the globe. Indonesia showed massive growth with a 40% jump year-over-year. India, Brazil, and Russia also had significant increases with approximately 30% growth in all of those countries.
In Q3, consumers spent a record $28 billion in apps, a 20% increase since last year. Additionally, users downloaded 33 billion new apps around the world. Google Play downloads increased 10% year-over-year, accounting for 25 billion new downloads in the quarter. App Stores reached nearly 9 billion downloads which is a 20% increase year-over-year. Non-gaming apps on Google Play were 55% of those downloads, while iOS accounted for 70% for installs.
Mobile Gaming Reaches 14 Billion Downloads
App Annie’s report also cover Gaming apps which finished another strong quarter with weekly downloads averaging around 1 billion for the second quarter in a row. As consumers continue to turn to their phones for entertainment, app installs have gone up 15% year-over-year. While the Games category was the largest driver of download growth quarter over quarter on Google Play, shifting consumer behaviors are translating to strong growth in other categories including Libraries & Demo, Dating and Events.
Downloads for mobile games reached 14 billion in the quarter, with downloads up 20% year-over-year on Google Play to around 11 billion. On iOS, consumers installed 2.6 billion games. As a result, mobile games accounted for a higher share of overall downloads on Google Play (45%) compared with the App Store (30%). Consumers also spent over $20 billion on games in Q3, making it the largest quarter ever. App Annie expects that mobile gaming will extend its lead over desktop by 2.8x and over console gaming by 3.1x by the end of the year.
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