Mobile App Industry Statistics (2021): Downloads, Usage, and Other Facts You Should Know

Following the eventful year of 2020, the stay-at-home economy enjoys a boom, and mobile apps have entered the list of the most profitable industries. Social isolation has greatly increased the time that people spend using their mobile devices.

Many mobile app market players have received a window of opportunities to take advantage of and provide their businesses with a long-term impetus toward growth and development.

Because of all these events, the mobile market has become even more competitive. We have collected for you the mobile app industry statistic data relevant in 2021. It will help you better comprehend the key trends and allow you to make sound decisions while keeping abreast of the market.

1. In 2020, users downloaded 218 billion apps to their devices compared with 204 billion a year earlier (Statista.com).

2. Over the past year, users’ screen time increased by 20%, reaching 4.2 hours (App Annie).

3. Users spent $143 billion in mobile apps in total.

4. Mobile advertising expenses reached $240 billion (25% more than in 2019). This figure is expected to grow to $290 billion by the end of 2021 (App Annie).

5. These are the world’s most popular mobile apps and games in 2020 by the number of active users per month:

6. According to Sensor Tower Store Intelligence, global consumer expenses on the largest 100 subscription-based non-gaming apps grew by 34% over a year from $9.7 billion in 2019 to $13 billion in 2020.

7. Besides games, entertainment apps were also on the rise, having earned more than any other apps on the App Store and grown by 29.3% to $5.3 billion.

8. TikTok has become the non-gaming app that got the largest revenue in the App Store in 2020. It grew by more than 600% to $1.2 billion. As for Android devices, Google One generated the largest revenue in 2020 with 41.9% growth to $444 million.

9. Apple supplied over 100 million Apple Watches, making Apple Watch the best-selling smartwatch ever in the world (AboveAvalon.com).

10. Games have been the driving force in the mobile app segment for quite a long while, but the pandemic managed to take them to a whole new level with installs grown by 45% in 2020 compared to 2019 (AppsFlyer).

11. According to Sensor Tower, five mobile games, including Tencent’s PUBG Mobile and Honor of Kings, earned over $1 billion in 2020.

12. PUBG Mobile became the world’s most profitable game on the App Store and Google Play in 2020. During the previous year, it brought its creators $2.6 billion.

13. Mobile game installs grew in both app stores and equaled 56.2 billion in 2020, growing by 33% compared to the year 2019. About 82% of all game installs or just a little bit more than 46 billion were done on Google Play.

14. According to Flurry 2021 State of Mobile, the list of countries with the largest number of new device activations looks as follows:

15. The leading app categories by session growth show the changes caused by the pandemic:

16. Telegram became the world’s most downloaded non-gaming app in January 2021 with over 63 million installs. The countries showing the greatest number of Telegram installations are India (24%) and Indonesia (10%).

17. In 2020, users all around the world (excluding China) spent 45% more time on financial mobile apps compared to 2019.

18. In 2020, the number of Banking and FinTech app downloads reached a record of 4.6 billion instances. (App Annie).

19. The previous year has provided a breakthrough for food and beverage delivery apps. Users created about 128 billion sessions in such apps.

20. The baby boomer generation (45 years of age and older) started using mobile apps by 27% more often than in 2019, while the Millennial and Z generations show an increase by 17% and 18% respectively.

21. The average smartphone owner uses 10 apps daily and 30 apps monthly.