Ahead of the App Store’s 10th anniversary, app market data and insights provider, App Annie, has released a detailed report which sheds light on some interesting statistics related to Apple’s app repository. The data, which has been compiled over a span of 8 years since July 2018, provides us an insight about the App Store’s growth trajectory, and more importantly, the most popular and the highest grossing apps, region-wise figures and a lot more.
But before we begin with the list of the most downloaded apps and the top-revenue earners, here are a few interesting stats:
- The worldwide app download share of the Google Play Store is 70%, which is more than twice when compared to the 30% share commanded by the App Store. However, the App Store rakes in 66% of the net consumer spending, which overshadows the 34% figure on the Google Play Store’s side.
- Games account for 31% of the app downloads from the App Store, but they account for 75% of the net consumer spending, with the APAC region leading the revenue charts with $25.2 billion spent on games in 2017.
- The United States leads in all-time app download figures as well as consumer spending, followed by China and Japan on both fronts.
- The App Store has over 2 million apps as of May 2018, while the total number of apps released on the App Store since its inception stands at over 4.5 million with 77% of them being games.
Now, let’s talk about the raw downloads and popularity figures. Facebook is the all-time most-downloaded app on the App Store, followed by Facebook Messenger and YouTube. Barring YouTube, the top five slots are occupied by Facebook products, with Instagram and WhatsApp rounding off the list at the fourth and fifth spot.
As far as consumer spending is concerned, Netflix leads the pack and is followed by Spotify and Pandora radio. Tinder is the only non-streaming app in the top five list and sits below Tencent Video at the fifth spot.
When it comes to games, Candy Crush Saga emerged as the most downloaded iOS game of all time across the globe, followed by two other mobile gaming phenomenon, Subway Surfer and Fruit Ninja.
Clash of Clans is the game which has raked in the most revenue of any app on the App Store, and is trailed by Candy Crush Saga and Monster Strike. Multiplayer games and RPGs dominate the list of the top-ten games with the highest spending figures, which is not surprising due to the rich scope of in-game purchases in such games.
Back in 2010, Talking Tom Cat was the most downloaded app of the year, while in 2018, a short form video platform and social network called Tik Tok takes the crown for the most downloaded app on the App Store.
Are there any surprised on the list? Let us know which is your favourite iOS app of all time.
