Worldwide spending on mobile apps globally on Christmas this year was recorded at around $407.6 million across Apple’s App Store and Google Play, a 34.5 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth from approximately $303 million in 2019. In comparison, spending grew only 17 percent YoY last year, according to a Sensor Tower report.
“2020 has been a record-setting year for worldwide spending on mobile apps and games, which passed $100 billion in a single year for the first time ever in November,” Sensor Tower noted in its report.
Consumers in the US spent the most, nearly $130 million across both the app stores this Christmas, which is a growth of 38.7 percent YoY and exceeds global growth by 6 points. Global growth was recorded at 17 points higher than in 2019. Last year, consumers in the US spent $93.7 million on apps.
Most users worldwide spent on mobile games during the holidays, a 27 percent increase from last year. Out of total spending of $295.6 million in this category this year, Tencent’s Honor of Kings leads with approximately $10.7 million. In 2019, $232.4 million was spent on mobile games on Christmas.
Coming to the non-game apps, the total spending this Christmas was recorded at $112 million, up 59 percent or 4.2 percentage points compared to last year’s $70.5 million. In the non-game apps category, TikTok bagged the top position as it generated $4.7 million globally in revenue on Christmas.
Of the non-game apps, Entertainment apps generated the most revenue of $19.3 million on the App Store, or 21.8 percent of all non-game spending. Close to $4.3 million was generated on Google Play, which is 18.5 percent of the total non-game apps revenue.
In the US, mobile games generated the most revenue of $87.2 million, up 26.4 percent from nearly $69 million in 2019. Roblox was the top spending mobile game in the US, which generated $6.6 million this Christmas. This is a YoY growth of 40.4 percent from $4.7 million in 2019.
In the US, the non-game apps category recorded a growth of 72.2 percent from $24.8 million last year to $42.7 million this Christmas. Entertainment was the top spending non-game apps category with Disney+ as the top app, which generated $2.6 million in the US. In 2019, the app generated $1.8 million in the US. The total revenue generated by the Entertainment category in the US was $9.6 million.
