The average US iPhone user spent $40 on apps last year, downloaded 33 apps

The average U.S. iPhone user spent $40 on apps & in-app purchases last year, according to research by Sensor Tower. This was up from $35 the previous year.

Unsurprisingly, games account for by far the biggest chunk of this – some $27 of the $40 total – but it was another category that saw the largest percentage increase …

That accolade was taken by the Entertainment category, which includes streaming videos, which saw its revenue climb 130% year-on-year. In its blog post, Sensor says that Netflix accounted for a huge chunk of this.

Netflix began monetizing through App Store subscriptions in Q4 2015, contributing approximately $7.9 million in gross revenue to the category during that period; in Q4 2016, that amount grew to more than $58 million.

Interestingly, while iPhone owners spent more in total, they actually downloaded slightly fewer apps: downloads falling from 35 per user in 2015 to 33 in 2016. This fall in downloads was consistent across all categories.

Sensor’s data was based on CIRP and other panels, providing a sample of 132M active iPhones in the USA.

Apple last month announced that the holiday season set a new record for App Store sales, and that developers made a total of $20B, up 40% from 2015. App Annie reported the same month that the iOS App Store generates 75% more revenue than Google’s Play Store, despite lower downloads.

Via CNET