Consumer spending on apps set new record on Christmas, Chinese apps ruled the roost

Worldwide spending on mobile apps has grown by 34.5 per cent on Christmas this year at $407.6 million as compared to the last year. This year the consumer expenses reached $407.6 at Google and Apple stores on Christmas alone. Tencent’s Honor of Kings emerged as the mobile game on which users spent the most. TikTok also had a fair contribution to the total spending on apps.

Global apps spending grew by 17.7 per cent compared to the growth experienced in 2019 as per app analyst Sensor Tower’s report. Mobile gaming apps lead the spending on apps with 27 per cent growth this year on Christmas compared to last year.

‘Honor of Kings’, the multiplayer online battle arena game garnered the most with users spending $10.7 million on it. Their revenues grew 205.7 per cent year-on-year. Its last year’s earnings was $3.5 million. Consumers spent $112 million on non-gaming apps, a rise by 59 per cent from $70.5 million last year. The total spending on non-gaming apps this year during Christmas grew 4.2 per cent from last year.

After gaming, entertainment made the most on both Google and Apple App Store. Share of entertainment apps reached $19.3 million. At Google Play, Entertainment apps garnered $4.3 million, that is 18.5 per cent the report further said.

TikTok making $4.7 million during Christmas this year emerged leader in terms of consumer spends on apps that are not gaming. TikTok witnessed exponential growth even during volatile times when India banned the app and in the US it was embroiled in a legal battle.

Users from the US contributed towards spending on apps the highest during Christmas. Consumers had spent up to $130 million during the festive season, a 38.7 per cent year-on-year growth, exceeding global growth by six points. Mobile games made the most money in US, $87.2 million to mark a 26.4 per cent spike in revenues. Non-gaming app spending in the US, on the other hand, grew almost thrice than gaming apps at 72.2 per cent to $42.7 million. Entertainment was the market leader here as well with $9.6 million on Christmas day.

Roblox, a platform that allows users to program games and play games created by other users led the total spending on gaming apps in US market with consumer spending growing by 40.4 per cent to $6.6 million. Among the entertainment apps, Disney+ achieved the top spot with $2.6 million, 44.4 per cent increase from last year.

Apple’s app store captured the greater share of the market in-app spending with total app spending of $278.6 million, In contrast, Google Play store witnessed $1129 million in revenue. The growth of the two stores was in the same lines, Apple with 35.2 per cent and Google at 33 per cent year-on-year.

The pandemic had positive impacts on digital spending by consumers. Sensor Tower report concluded both the apps stores collectively made $100 billion in consumer spending by November 2020 end.