What you need to know
- A new report from Sensor Tower details consumer spending on app stores.
- Apple's App Store has double the revenue compared to Google Play.
- Combined, both have totaled over $50 billion in the first half of 2020.
The App Store continues to dominate the Google Play Store in terms of overall consumer spending.
In a new report from Sensor Tower, consumers spent $50.1 billion worldwide between the App Store and Google Play Store in the first half of the year, a 23.4 percent increase from the previous year.
Consumers spent a combined total of $50.1 billion worldwide on the App Store and Google Play in the first half of 2020, preliminary Sensor Tower Store Intelligence estimates and projections through June 30 show. This was 23.4 percent more than the $40.6 billion we estimate mobile users spent across both stores during the same period in 2019. Previously, revenue had increased 20 percent between the first half of 2018 and 2019; this year's more significant growth reflects a trend of greater overall spending as a result of COVID-19's impact on the global app ecosystem.
According to the report, consumer spending on the App Store grew 24.7 percent over 2019 to $32.8 billion in the first half of 2020. Compared to the Google Play Store, App Store spending made up twice the revenue of Apple's competitor.
Apple's App Store generated an estimated $32.8 billion globally from in-app purchases, subscriptions, and premium apps and games in the first half of 2020. This figure is 24.7 percent more year-over-year from the $26.3 billion spent during the same period in 2019. Spending on Apple's marketplace was nearly twice the estimated gross revenue on Google Play, which clocked in at $17.3 billion. That was up 21 percent Y/Y from the first half of 2019, when we estimate consumers spent $14.3 billion on Google Play.
Sensor Tower points to the pandemic as the reason for the massive increase, as many have been spending on digital products due to social distancing and stay at home orders across the world.
