The global app economy continued to recover in 2024 after an initial slowdown in 2022, at least in terms of consumer spending. Global consumer spending on mobile apps and games will reach $127 billion in 2024 across the App Store and Google Play, up 15.7% from the previous year. But new data from app intelligence company AppFigures shows that the increase was driven by Apple’s App Store as spending on Google Play fell.
Despite the increase in spending, there were other worrying signs about the overall health of the app ecosystem. Global app downloads this year fell 2.3% compared to 2023, reaching nearly 110 billion. The data shows this downward trend was seen across both app stores.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen signs that the app ecosystem’s massive growth may finally be starting to level off. As the app economy matures, the focus has recently been on extracting revenue from apps consumers already use through ongoing subscriptions, rather than encouraging them to download new or paid apps.
What’s notable is that last year, only 5% of apps globally offered subscriptions, yet they accounted for 48% of app revenue across both app stores. Additionally, the top 10 revenue-generating apps globally generated 13.7% of total consumer spending, up 1.2% from 12.5% in 2023.
Meanwhile, most of the innovation taking place today is in the field of AI. Apple has largely ignored AI when selecting its overall App of the Year for the past few years. This trend was picked for 2024 by video app Kino and hiking app AllTrails. and 2023, respectively.
Downloads decline globally
Meanwhile, declining app downloads were a trend seen across both app marketplaces.
Of the total 110 billion downloads in 2024, iOS downloads amounted to 28.3 billion, down 1.1% from the previous year. Android app downloads on Google Play fell 2.6% to 81.4 billion. Another report showed that app downloads were almost flat last year.
In part, the decline in downloads has to do with how Apple and Google Play manage their app stores in 2024.
In particular, Google has cracked down on spam and other low-quality apps over the past year, resulting in a significant 60% drop in new app launches on Google Play. This may be due to increased requirements from developers for app testing and app reviews.
The United States also helped drive the larger global download trend, with U.S. iOS downloads down 5.3% to 6.1 billion and U.S. Google Play app downloads down 0.7% to 4.4 billion. Overall, U.S. app downloads fell 3.4% this year, to about 10.6 billion.
Instagram, not TikTok, was the most downloaded app in 2024 with nearly 640 million installs. It was also the most searched app in the United States. Along with Instagram, other top social apps including Snapchat, Facebook, and TikTok will also have over X number of searches in 2024.
But Temu is the most downloaded app in the U.S., with 48 million installs, AppFigures said. Apple recently confirmed that this app is the most downloaded app in the United States on the App Store.
Mexico saw the largest increase in app downloads in 2024, with 225 million more installs than in 2023.
The App Store Keeps Making Money
In terms of revenue, the app economy is still making money for both developers and app stores, at least in the Apple App Store.
Of the total $127 billion in global consumer spending in 2024, $91.6 billion will come from the App Store, a 24% increase from the previous year. Google Play consumer spending fell 1.5% year over year to $35.7 billion globally.
The United States had a large piece of the overall pie. $47.6 billion in consumer spending came from U.S. users, an 11% increase from the previous year. (Apple App Store accounted for $34.4 billion in the U.S. figures, up 18.4%, while Google Play’s U.S. revenue fell 4.7%, reaching $13.2 billion in 2024.)
The top app globally by consumer spending is TikTok, with approximately $2.5 billion across iOS and Android, excluding China’s app stores. TikTok is also the top app in the U.S., bringing in nearly $1.3 billion.
Brazil is the fastest-growing market for consumer spending, up 73% year-on-year.
