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Global spend on apps surges by 40% in a year

The app market is getting bigger – and it’s growing at a faster rate than ever before – revealing the remarkable impact of the global lockdown on the app industry.

New App Annie data reveals that consumers spent $32 billion on in-app purchases across iOS and Google Play globally in the first quarter of 2021 – a surge of 40% compared to the same quarter of 2020. It’s the largest-ever quarter on record, App Annie notes.

The first quarter of 2020 was the first period of global lockdowns. Stay at home orders forced consumers to seek out indoor stimulation, and they found it on their smartphones, through games and other highly engaging apps such as video streaming and social sharing platforms.

As a result, the market grew at unprecedented speed. Smartphone users spent around $9 billion more on apps and games in Q1 2021 than they did in Q1 2020, according to App Annie’s data.

The growth was shared equally by the two platforms; consumer spend grew 40% year over year to $21 billion on iOS, and by the same percentage year over year to around $11 billion on Google Play.

Total downloads also grew significantly. Downloads on both iOS and Google Play combined rose by around 10% to 31 billion in the quarter.

Read on Moonshot News which was the most downloaded app.

 

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