Ahead of the 10th anniversary of the iOS App Store, App Annie has put together an interesting and detailed look at the first decade of app downloads. Follow along after the break for a look at the all-time most popular apps and games by downloads, revenue, and much more.
The full App Annie report includes a wealth of data and comparisons from the last ten years. To start, the iOS App Store now has over 2 million apps that have been downloaded over 170 billion times, and almost 10,000 of those apps have created $1 million or more in revenue.
Let’s take a look at some of the most fascinating highlights. While some trends remain, there have been some big some shifts in what apps users are spending their time and money on during the last ten years.
First up are the top 10 most popular apps from 2010 vs. 2018 (iOS games excluded). Eight years ago, by downloads, Talking Tom Cat topped the list, meanwhile today, Tik Tok – an extremely popular social media app in China – sits at number one just ahead of YouTube.
As for the most popular apps by consumer spend, productivity, education, and navigation apps made up most of the top ten back in 2010 with Documents To Go being the most lucrative app. Now, entrainment and social apps like Netflix, Pandora Music, YouTube, and Tinder are what users are spending the most on.
When it comes to games, there aren’t really any surprises. Both categories of all-time popularity by downloads and revenue are dominated by the household names of Candy Crush, Clash of Clans, Angry Birds, and more.
While it came in at number four by download popularity, Clash of Clans cleaned up as the iOS game that has generating the most revenue of all-time. Interesting enough, Pokémon GO just squeezed in at number 10 for consumer spend.
Also interesting, App Annie pegs iOS App Store revenue from games to make up for 75% of all App Store spending, despite them only accounting for 31% of app downloads.
As for all-time iOS app downloads, Facebook, Google, and Tencent carried the top ten list.
However, as for top ten all-time most popular apps by revenue, Netflix took came out on top followed by Spotify, Pandora, and Tencent Video.
The US is still the market leader when it comes to all-time iOS downloads (40.1 billion) and revenue ($36 billion), but China will likely move into the top spot soon.
Notably, the App Store has seen huge growth when it comes to consumer spending. App Annie puts the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) at 30% from 2012-2017.
Another interesting data point is that there are almost 3,000 apps that have created $1 million in revenue in 2017 alone, with over 500 of them creating greater that $10 million in consumer spending.
Those numbers are up from just 770 apps with $1M in revenue and 61 with over $10M in 2012.
Check out the full, thorough report from App Annie here.
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