The Growth of Mobile Apps: What Do Statistics Say?

 According to research , mobile app downloads continue to increase year-over-year, from 140.6 billion in 2016 to 218 billion in 2020. It’s projected that this will rise to 258 billion by the end of 2021, a whopping 83% increase in a span of five years.

 When people plan to build their mobile apps, their monetization strategy is one of the first things they consider. However, interestingly, studies show that more than 90% of apps in the market are free, and 98% of worldwide industry revenue comes from free apps.
 

Now, this isn’t to say that charging people to download your app is a wrong move. You do, however, need to provide a solid reason for them to do so, as the majority of users are already used to free apps. If you’re looking to make money out of your software, you can consider advertising, in-app purchases, subscriptions, and other popular app monetization methods  .

According to studies , an average smartphone user spends about three hours and 10 minutes daily on their device. Of that, two hours and 51 minutes (or around 90% of smartphone usage) are spent on apps.

Other research shows that an average user checks their phone every 12 minutes. In fact, 49% of people open an app more than 11 times a day, and nearly 2% of users do so over 100 times every day.

Similarly, millennials and Gen Zers are key drivers of the growth of mobile apps. In particular, 21% of millennials open an app more than 50 times daily. Also, people aged 18-24 spend an average of 112.6 monthly hours per mobile app. Users aged 25-34 spend around 102 hours a month.

Social Media Today also reports that an average smartphone has more than 80 apps installed. However, an average user only uses 10 mobile apps daily and about 30 per month. This means more than 60% of the mobile apps may have been downloaded but they don’t get used regularly.

 Ultimately, these figures show that the growth of mobile apps is not only driven by downloads, but also by the usage and retention of the consumers. As such, it’s crucial to provide an excellent user experience and functionality if you want people to use your mobile app.

The two most popular places for mobile app downloads are the App Store (for Apple users) and Google Play (for Android users).

As of Q3 2020 data, the App Store has about 4.37 million  apps available, with approximately 8.2 billion  first-time installs. This was a 2.5% growth rate compared to the same period in 2019 which closed at eight billion downloads.

On the other hand, Google Play offers about 2.9 million  apps and generated 28.3 billion new app installs. It increased by 31% versus Q3 2019, which saw about 21.6 billion mobile app downloads.

This means Google’s mobile application platform generated more than three times in downloads and is growing at a faster rate compared to its Apple counterpart.

In that same period, mobile app revenue was at $29.3 billion. Interestingly, $19 billion came from App Store consumers, while $10.3 billion was from Google Play. While more than 90%  of the apps in the App Store are free, and the same goes for 96% of apps  in Google Play, marketers are able to generate income primarily from in-app ads.