Consumer spending on mobile apps and games will hit $133 billion by the end of the year

In a word: Consumer spending on NFT hit record highs in 2021 at nearly $27 billion so far, but that’s nothing like what people have collectively spent on mobile apps and games this year. According to the latest Store Intelligence data from Sensor Tower, global spending on mobile apps, games, in-app purchases, premium apps and subscriptions is expected to reach $133 billion by the end of the year, as market trends are normalizing after the pandemic.

This represents a 19.7% increase from the $111.1 billion spent on the App Store and Google Play in 2020 and close to the 21% year-over-year growth seen in 2019.

Breaking down by app store, Sensor Tower predicts consumer spending on Apple’s App Store will hit $85.1 billion by the time the calendar rolls around, a 17.7% increase from the previous year. last year. Spending on Google Play, meanwhile, will total much less at $47.9 billion, but will have a higher annual growth rate of 23.5%.

Sensor Tower said platform spend relative to each other is comparable to what was seen last year, with the App Store generating about 1.8 times Google’s market revenue.

TikTok is expected to be the highest-grossing app in the world, followed by YouTube and Piccoma, a Japanese manga subscription service.

Mobile games, meanwhile, are expected to generate $89.6 billion in revenue, or 67.4% of all app spending. Although it remains a significant majority, it is down from 74.1% in 2019 and 71.7% last year. Top-grossing games include PUBG Mobile, Honor of Kings, and Genshin Impact, in that order, with Coin Master and Roblox rounding out the top five.