The global app economy slowed for the first time last year, with consumer spending on apps down 2% to $167 billion, according to an annual report by data.ai.On the other hand, downloads increased by 11 percent compared to the previous year, a positive indicator that the applications continue to be adopted, especially with the influence of emerging markets.
But a deeper analysis of Q4 indicates that download growth has more recently slowed during a period of the year, which is typically a boon for the app ecosystem. What makes these new numbers even more surprising is that the holiday season tends to bring new phones and more free time for consumers to try new apps and games.
According to app intelligence firm Sensor Tower, the adoption of portable apps in the App Store and Google Play Store reached 35.5 billion new installs in Q4 2022, a slight 0.1 percent decrease from the same period a year ago.
Analysis on user basis; that is, it does not count the additional downloads of an application made by the same person on different devices in total. Also, it doesn’t count for re-installing the app just to show the new download growth. But these numbers are just assumptions.
While the trends in the 4th quarter weren’t enough to push down overall download growth metrics year-over-year, it appears to be another signal of a calming app economy – still being affected by overall macroeconomic forces that are still normalizing after much growth during Covid and play a valuable role in app marketing spend. an ongoing business.
According to Sensor Tower data, the most downloaded applications and games are as follows:
Most downloaded apps
Most downloaded gamesBut there is another argument here, and that is that high-priced boards over the years through app sales and in-app purchases in global app stores are finally starting to influence innovation across the broader app ecosystem. If companies have to share up to 30 percent of their revenues to bring their apps and games to the portable audience, they’ll have more trouble weathering a storm with the economy going to suck.
And entrepreneurs may be less inclined to develop, particularly for portable devices, when other areas of the market are less restrictive. Look at developments around crypto and Web3 for example – they haven’t been able to fully expand to mobile due to app store guidelines and platforms’ need to profit from in-app purchases. With so much pressure on app innovation, it’s no surprise that downloads and spending are wasted.
