Data analytics firm SensorTower said on Monday that Apple device users may end up spending more on non-gaming mobile apps by 2024, as COVID-19 lockdown lifestyles result in users looking beyond games to apps that help with more essential services.
Downloads of business, education, health and fitness apps have seen a sharp spike due to the stay-at-home measures during the health crisis.
During the initial days of the pandemic, users spent more on mobile games in the App Store. But as lockdowns got extended, upending work life as well as the ways of communication, their attention shifted to photo and video-sharing, dating, video-conferencing and instant messaging apps.
SensorTower said consumer spending on mobile apps will reach $270 billion in the next five years globally, a more than three-fold increase when compared with 2020.
Apple customers will outspend their Android counterparts with the App Store expected to generate $185 billion in global revenue, the data analytics firm said.
MacDailyNews Note: Driven by the success of the subscription model, growth in Apple’s App Store revenue in non-game apps over the last five years has outpaced that in mobile games. Apple users’ spending in non-game apps increased 4.7 times between 2016 and 2020, while it doubled in mobile games.
SensorTower says, “The mobile marketplace has shown incredible resilience during an unprecedented global pandemic that led to a surge in both first-time installs and consumer spending. Over the next five years, the ecosystem will continue its strong performance and experience enormous growth.”
