Apps On A High
Global app revenue reaches $39 billion in the first half of 2019, up 15% year-over-year
The world’s App Store and Google Play users generated a combined $39.7 billion in spending on mobile apps and games during the first half of 2019, reveals a new report by mobile app intelligence firm Sensor Tower. Interestingly, this was 15.4 per cent more than the $34.4 billion consumers spent across both stores in the first half of 2018.
Consumers spent an estimated $25.5 billion globally on Apple’s App Store during the first half, an increase of 13.2 per cent
year-over-year from $22.6 billion in Q1 and Q2 of 2018. The amount generated by Apple’s platform was approximately 80 per cent greater than Google Play’s estimated gross revenue of $14.2 billion for the half, the report said. That was up 19.6 per cent Y/Y from first half 2018’s total of $11.8 billion.
Tinder was the highest grossing non-game app in 1H19, generating an estimated $497 million in spending across both stores. This was about 32 per cent more than users spent in the app during the first half of 2018.
Netflix was the second highest earning non-game app for Q1 and Q2 with estimated consumer spend of close to $399 million globally. It had been No. 1 for in-app revenue in 1H18, but has since declined following Netflix’s decision to remove subscriptions from the IOS version of the app. Tencent Video grossed $278 million outside of China’s third-party Android stores, making it the third largest app of the half by revenue. IQIYI and Youtube were the No. 4 and No. 5 grossing non-game apps, respectively.
First-time app installs totaled 56.7 billion for the half with the App Store accounting for 14.8 billion of those, a decrease of 1.4 per cent from 1H18. As previously mentioned, the Q1 2019 was the first quarter where IOS downloads fell Y/Y overall, due to a downturn in China. App Store installs bounced back in Q2, growing nearly 3 per cent Y/Y to about 7.4 billion worldwide, but the decline in Q1 was enough to drag the entire first half into negative territory.
Google Play installs grew 16.4 per cent Y/Y for the half to 41.9 billion, up from 36 billion in 1H18. This was about 2.8 times greater than the volume of firsttime downloads on IOS for the first two quarters of this year. Still, Apple’s platform continued to generate nearly 1.8 times
more revenue than Google’s on only about a third as many installs.
The top three apps by global downloads remained unchanged over 1H18, with Facebook’s Whatsapp, Messenger, and Facebook holding onto the top of the chart. Tiktok again ranked No. 4 ahead of Instagram but saw its first-time installs grow about 28 per cent Y/Y for the half to nearly 344 million worldwide despite a two-week ban in its largest market during Q2.
On the other hand, mobile game spending was up 11.3 per cent Y/Y in the first half, reaching an estimated $29.6 billion across both stores, the report said. Due to an overall downturn in consumer spending on IOS apps in China, along with the lingering effects of a pause on new mobile game approvals in the country, App Store revenue grew at a modest 7.8 per cent Y/Y during the half to $17.6 billion. Google Play games spending grew more considerably at 16.8 per cent, reaching $12 billion for the half, it added.
Honor of Kings from Tencent continued its run at the No. 1 grossing mobile game globally in the first half, bringing in more than $728 million, not including China’s third-party Android stores. Fate/grand Order from Sony Aniplex, the No. 3 game by revenue in 1H18, moved to No. 2 in 1H19 and grossed an estimated $628 million. Monster Strike from Mixi dropped to No. 3 overall, generating approximately $566 million.
Candy Crush Saga from King and PUBG Mobile from Tencent ranked No. 4 and No. 5 for spending, respectively. The latter rocketed into the top five, thanks to Chinese user spending in Game For Peace, the PUBG Mobile variant designed specifically for that market. It grossed an estimated $141 million during the first half on IOS alone.
New mobile game downloads totaled 20.1 billion in the first half, up 3.2 per cent from 1H18. Game downloads on IOS fell 1.4 per cent Y/Y to 4.4 billion due to aforementioned factors, while they grew 4.6 per cent Google Play to 15.7 billion.
Color Bump 3D from Good Job Games, Garena Free Fire from Garena, and PUBG Mobile from Tencent were the three most downloaded mobile games across both stores during 1H19. ■
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