In 2024, the global app economy is bouncing back with a solid rise in consumer spending, hitting a remarkable $127 billion across both Apple’s App Store and Google Play. This marks a 15.7% increase compared to the previous year, predominantly driven by the App Store, as Google Play experienced a spending slump, according to insights from Appfigures.
Despite this uptick in spending, there’s a concerning trend in the app ecosystem—the total number of app downloads slipped by 2.3% compared to 2023, totaling nearly 110 billion downloads. This decline occurred across both major app platforms.
As the app market matures, developers are shifting focus from promoting new downloads to extracting more revenue from existing apps through subscriptions. Surprisingly, a mere 5% of mobile apps offered subscription models last year. Yet, these apps were responsible for a striking 48% of revenue across both stores. Additionally, the top 10 revenue-generating apps globally accounted for 13.7% of consumer spending, showing a slight uptick from 12.5% in 2023.
In contrast, much of today’s innovation is concentrated in artificial intelligence, a trend Apple seems to have sidestepped when selecting its App of the Year. In recent years, the honors went to video app Kino and hiking app AllTrails for 2024 and 2023, respectively.
Interestingly, while global downloads are dropping, it’s a reality shared across both marketplaces. In 2024, iOS downloads contributed 28.3 billion installs, a slight 1.1% decline from the previous year. Correspondingly, Android app downloads on Google Play dipped by 2.6% to 81.4 billion. Previously, app downloads have remained mostly stagnant, with another study noting similar findings.
Part of the decline in downloads can be attributed to how Apple and Google Play managed their app environments in 2024. Google, notably, took measures to eliminate spam and subpar apps, leading to an impressive 60% reduction in new app releases on its platform. This shift was propelled by stricter guidelines developers must meet for app testing and review.
The U.S. significantly impacted this decrease in downloads, showing a 5.3% reduction in iOS installs to 6.1 billion, while Google Play downloads fell by 0.7% to 4.4 billion. Combined, app downloads in the U.S. fell by 3.4%, landing at around 10.6 billion.
Interestingly, Instagram outperformed TikTok as the most downloaded app in 2024, achieving nearly 640 million installs and becoming the top-searched app in the United States. Social favorites like Snapchat, Facebook, and TikTok also maintained strong search rankings.
However, the surprise package was Temu, garnering the title of the most downloaded app in the U.S. with 48 million installs as confirmed by Apple on their App Store.
Mexico showcased remarkable growth in app downloads, with an upswing of 225 million installs from the previous year.
From a financial perspective, the app economy continues to be prosperous for developers, particularly through Apple’s App Store. Of the total $127 billion in consumer spending in 2024, a staggering $91.6 billion originated from the App Store, representing a 24% increase year-over-year. Conversely, Google Play witnessed a 1.5% decrease in consumer spending, reaching $35.7 billion globally.
The U.S. played a substantial role, accounting for $47.6 billion in consumer app spending—up by 11%. Notably, the Apple App Store commanded $34.4 billion of this figure, an 18.4% increase, while Google Play’s U.S. revenue shrank by 4.7% to $13.2 billion.
TikTok emerged as the top app worldwide in terms of consumer spending, with an estimated $2.5 billion in revenue from iOS and Android app stores, excluding those in China. In the U.S. market alone, TikTok generated nearly $1.3 billion.
Brazil emerged as a rapidly growing market in terms of consumer spending, witnessing a remarkable 73% year-over-year surge.
