App Store icon on an iPhone
Apple is continuing to thrash Google in customer app spending, with iPhone owners outspending Android counterparts.
Over the years, Apple has continued to enjoy a lead on Google when it comes to consumer spending on apps. In Sensor Tower’s Digital Market Index Report for the first quarter of 2024, this is still the case.
The report states that overall consumer spending on mobile platforms in general continued to be strong, with a 9.5% year-on-year improvement.
Most of the improvement to $35.8 billion stems from non-game transactions, which grew 19.4% year-on-year. Games saw revenue increase by just 2.9% by comparison, but it did breach the $20 billion barrier for the first time in two years.
Worldwide App Consumer Spend in Q1 2024 [Sensor Tower]
On a platform-specific basis, iOS continued to rake in the most revenue overall, with a total of $24.6 billion in transactions for the quarter, up 11.5% year-on-year. By comparison, the Google Play Store saw overall revenue grow to $11.2 billion, up 5.3%.
For mobile games, Apple hauled in $13 billion, a near 6% year-on-year improvement. Meanwhile Google Play saw game revenue stay flat at $7.3 billion.
In terms of the number of downloads from the digital storefronts, Apple saw a 2.1% improvement year-on-year, rising to 8.4 billion downloads. This is the best total since Q2 2020, Sensor Tower adds.
Worldwide App Downloads in Q1 2024 [Sensor Tower]
However, App Store downloads are dwarfed by Google Play, which saw 25.6 billion downloads in the quarter. This was actually a 5.2% reduction, but it continues to be more than three times the total downloads of the App Store.
Overall, Google Play continues to be the bigger store when it comes to downloads. Apple still leads when it comes to actual consumer revenue.
In total across both platforms, the United States is still the biggest market in consumer spend at $12.4 billion, up 16% YoY. China is in second with $6.0 billion, up 4%.
Entertainment apps continue to be the top revenue earners, with $4.1 billion in earnings for Q1 2024. This is also up 18% year-on-year.
