The global spending on applications reached $32.5 billion even as downloads totaled 36.9 billion in the first quarter of 2022, tradingplatforms analysis has revealed. This figure represents a 0.6% gain from the $32.3B that the sector raised in Q1 2021.
It is also revealed that Apple’s marketplace had the lion’s share of the revenues, more than doubling Google Play’s. The App Store grew its revenues to 21.8B, a 5.8% uptick based on year-on-year (YOY) terms. Meanwhile, Google Play recorded over $10.7 billion in consumer spending, which is a decline of about 8.5% from the $11.7B it raised in 2021.
According to TradingPlatforms, the tanking of revenue in Q1 2022 can be attributed to market corrections. “The onset of the pandemic saw an uptick in in-app spending leading to the hyper-growth in revenues that the sector recorded. Fast forward to now, normalcy is returning after many nations eased their containment measures. Therefore people are redirecting their funds to other priority areas.”
TikTok is the best performing app, amassing $821 million in sales.
Meanwhile, worldwide app downloads totaled 36.9 billion in the same period, representing an 11% growth in year-over-year (YOY) download totals.
TikTok, Instagram and Facebook were among the dominant apps. China-owned video-sharing app TikTok exceeded 3.5B downloads, its all-time download high. And attaining that feat made it one of the only five apps to cross this threshold.
Instagram registered a 7% reduction in its quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) installations. However, the quarter was still its second-best total download term since 2014. The app has recently announced changes to its algorithm that will suppress content on its feeds reposted from TikTok.
Facebook and WhatsApp followed Instagram in the third and fourth positions. The former registered nearly 155 million downloads while the latter recorded 125 M. Meanwhile, Telegram attained the fifth position in overall downloads, having registered more than 100 million downloads worldwide.