Global In-App Spending Hits Record $67.5 Bn, With India Being Google Play’s Largest Market: Report

According to a research released on Thursday, the global mobile industry reached a record $67.5 billion in in-app consumer spending in the first half of this year and saw 76.8 billion app downloads across iOS and Google Play.

After declining in 2022, consumer expenditure on mobile devices increased at a solid 5.3% year over year in the first half of 2023. According to data.ai, the top mobile data and analytics firm, app downloads were also up 3.2%.

The greatest markets for downloads on Google Play in H1 2021 were India, Brazil, and Indonesia, while the platform had the highest increases from H2 2022 to H1 2021 in Turkey, Russia, and Indonesia.

On the other hand, the top markets for iOS downloads were China, the US, and Japan, with Brazil, China, and the US seeing the largest increases from H2 2022.

“The return to positive growth in H1 is an encouraging signal that the decline in mobile consumer spend during 2022 may have represented a temporary blip in the long-term sustained growth of the mobile app market,” the research said.

Chinese software for creating short videos In Q1 2023, TikTok became the first app to cross $1 billion in consumer spending in a quarter. In H1 2023, TikTok amassed $2.1 billion in customer spending, making it the first app to surpass $2 billion.

In comparison to H2 2022, Piccoma, Disney+, and YouTube all witnessed increase of 34%, 10%, and 6%, respectively.

Unsurprisingly, the top download and monthly active user (MAU) lists in H1 2023 were dominated by the social media behemoths. The top five slots by downloads were held by ByteDance (TikTok and CapCut) and Meta (Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook), while Meta maintained its lead in the MAU rankings, according to the study.

Subway Surfers and Free Fire led the top five games by downloads in H1 2023 and the second half of 2022, respectively.

Block Blast Adventure Master from Hungry Studio and Attack Hole from Homa were two newcomers.

Gardenscapes, a match-3 game from Playrix, was another H1 game that was growing in popularity.

The top mobile games by MAU, topped by Roblox, Free Fire, and Candy Crush Saga, were comparable to H2 2022.

According to the survey, FIFA Soccer was the lone newcomer to the top 10, continuing the momentum it gained during the FIFA World Cup in late 2022.