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Statistics on App Download and Usage Trends (2022)

Use the research I’ve listed to help you build or improve your mobile app.

It’s no big surprise that the mobile app industry is thriving, given that there are over 6.3 billion smartphone users globally. Despite the fact that app use and smartphone penetration are still increasing, their rate of growth has not slowed down in any way.

In addition to the 36% growth in the number of tablet users worldwide over the past six years, consider the 1.14 billion tablet users.

Everyone else is also staring at their mobile device if you happen to look up from your phone for a second during the day.

An average American looks at their mobile phone 262 times per day, or once every 5.5 minutes, according to research.

We use our phones at work, at home, on the street, while eating, in bed, and even in our cars. Even if you’re reading this from a mobile device right now, you may be doing so.

What are people doing on their mobile devices? According to a study conducted by Localytics, 88% of mobile time is spent on apps.

This is great news for app developers, app publishers, and anyone else interested in creating apps. However, in order to succeed in this field, two things must occur.

The information below inspired me to write this guide. We know that people are using apps more than ever before. However, this information only scratches the surface in terms of the available data on this usage. You cannot develop an app based on this information alone.

People like to eat, so opening a restaurant is like saying, “That’s silly.”

Having a better understanding of how people are downloading and using mobile apps can help you compete and claim your share of this multi-billion dollar industry.

This guide can help you develop or improve your mobile app by using the research I identified.

The following are key mobile app statistics for 2022. More than 800 million mobile applications were downloaded in 2013.

Downloads are essential for app success.

Despite how straightforward it appears, a lot of app owners fail to grasp this concept. You might have the greatest application in the world, but if nobody downloads it, you won’t make a cent. Before you can get people to install your app, you must do proper research. These are the most pertinent mobile app download statistics for 2022.

Global downloads are available.

People are using mobile devices in every corner of the world.

The proliferation of mobile apps is also accompanied by an increase in app downloads.

There is a growing trend in app downloads each year. This trend will continue into the future as well.

Last year, nearly 220 billion apps were downloaded, a 7% jump from the year before.

The line graph illustrates the rise in traffic between 2016 and 2020. Despite the fact that the year over year growth rate is not as steep, it is still increasing.

Whether to download for free or pay for a service is a decision you must make for yourself.

When developing a mobile app, you must determine your monetization method early on.

You are creating an app because that is why you want to make money.

Have you ever considered charging for app downloads? However, would people download your app if you made it payable?

It’s time to examine the proportion of free to paid app downloads. The majority of global downloads are all paid.

Despite the fact that free apps generate 98% of app revenue worldwide, only a small percentage of people are willing to pay for downloads.

It’s not that I’m saying you should completely write off the notion of releasing a paid app. There are benefits to both approaches if you have the right type of app.

If you charge for downloads initially, fewer mobile users will download the app. People are used to being offered free downloads, so the majority will not download the app if you charge for downloads initially.

Are you one of the few people who paid to download apps on your mobile device? Look around, and see for yourself.

People who download paid apps are more likely to be engaged. They won’t spend money on something and then never use it.

You can still make money with your app by charging for downloads.

Those of you who have an app as an extension of an existing business to improve customer experience should definitely be providing free downloads.

Most apps on Apple App Store and Google Play Store are available for free, and users don’t expect to pay for downloads.

The given bar chart illustrates the research results about the popularity of different social media platforms in India as of December 2018.

Even if you’re launching a new app as a business, you can still make money by offering the app for free. In-app purchases, among other monetization strategies, are available.

Make sure to look at the latest mobile ecommerce revenue and usage statistics if you are using your app to sell products or services.

The Google Play store vs. the App Store in terms of downloads.

The overwhelming majority of mobile users are downloading apps at two places.

Users with an iOS device can download apps from the Apple App Store, while Android users download apps from the Google Play Store.

Compare the global app downloads of these two platforms.

Despite Google Play Store downloads increasing worldwide, both stores also experienced an increase in downloads between 2019 and 2020, as you can see.

There was a 31% increase in downloads on the Google Play Store, while the Apple App Store experienced a 2.5% increase.

More than the Apple Store, the Google Play Store offers more downloads and is growing faster.

These trends will continue in 2022 as I expect.

King of App allows you to create an Android and iOS app simultaneously, so you don’t have to decide which platform to build for first. You can launch on both stores and obtain as many downloads as possible.

The given pie chart provides information about the percentage of revenue generated by the Apple App Store in 2017.

We’ve already examined how the two app stores compare to one another. However, now it’s time to dive into these numbers further and examine each platform in greater detail.

Let’s look at the Apple App Store download figures.

The Most Popular Categories on the App Store.

It is crucial to know what consumers want in order for your app to be successful. Particularly if you are creating a new app, you must grasp what consumers want and what they want to achieve with your app.

There may be nothing revolutionary about the software or concept behind your app, but if there is no demand for its use, you will have a hard time getting people to install it.

The Apple App Store provides information on the most downloaded apps. Here are the most popular app categories based on availability.

The App Store is dominated by the gaming category.

Unless you are planning to develop a new game from scratch, you won’t have one. For example, let’s say you have a ecommerce business. It would not be logical to develop a gaming app for your company just to put it in a more popular category.

Categories for business or lifestyle apps should be relevant to the app’s purpose and functionality. You should not categorize your app as a game just to gain more downloads, for example.

Choosing a category for an app’s primary purpose is against App Store review guidelines.

Your app can be removed from the App Store if you violate these terms. Obviously, no one will be able to download your app if this happens.

Do not try to fool the system. Even if your app is not in a leading category, it can still be successful. Those categories have more competitors. If your strategy involves targeting a less popular category that has fewer competitors and seizing a greater proportion of a smaller market, you may be able to succeed.

Is Apple App Store available in your country?

It is very competitive to develop mobile apps.

How many apps are competing against? Look at the number of apps available on the Apple App Store.

The quantity of available apps is rising every year.

All things considered, the trend we’ve examined thus far makes sense. Individuals have mobile devices than ever before, and app downloads are at an all-time high. Therefore, sending apps to market is becoming more popular.

Are there more apps because there are more apps to download? Or are there more apps to download because there are so many apps?

It’s hard to determine, and you may argue both sides on this matter. We will gain a better understanding of this line of reasoning after we examine the Google Play Store.

The statistics on Google Play Store downloads are shown below.

Let’s look at the download data from Android devices.

I composed a more detailed Google Play Store analysis.

The availability of the Google Play store is queried.

Let me immediately show you how many apps are available for download on the Google Play Store. We just finished looking at Apple App Store availability.

The line graph illustrates the app availability in relation to time. It is apparent that the line does not follow the same pattern as the Apple line for the same category. Actually, we observed a decline in app availability after mid-2017, although the quantity of apps has been continually increasing ever since.

Why do you ask?

There are many apps on the Google Play Store, and some weren’t able to survive.

The data over the last two years suggest that the trend line should continue to rise for the foreseeable future. I do not expect to see another downward trajectory.

Despite the fact that the number of apps available for download has dropped a bit on Google Play Store, downloads are still rising.

The Apple App Store is seeing more apps each year, but the download rate is slower than that of the Google Play Store. Based on this information, it can be inferred that the number of apps available on each store is not connected to rising app downloads in general.

The most popular Google Play Store app categories are listed below.

According to Statista, these are the app categories with the highest penetration rate among Android users.

 

  • Tools — 99.81%
  • Communication — 99.93%
  • Business — 99.33%
  • Video Players & Edit— 96.63%
  • Travel & Local — 95.7%
  • Social — 95.02%
  • Productivity — 91.67%
  • Music & Audio — 88.38%
  • Entertainment — 83.85%
  • News & Magazines — 81.11%
  • Photography — 75.77%
  • Books & Reference — 70.74%
  • Lifestyle — 65.67%
  • Personalization — 61.62%
  • Games (Casual) — 58.86%
  • Games (Puzzle) — 56.5%
  • Games (Arcade) — 55.08%
  • Shopping — 35.79%
  • Games (Action) — 34.19%
  • Weather — 32.46%

According to Statista, these are the app categories with the highest penetration rate among Android users.

Be wary when examining the leading groups on the list. For example, communications apps (such as WhatsApp) are likely to be pre-installed on all Android devices.

This list gives an idea of the sorts of apps Android users have downloaded (apps like WhatsApp, Snapchat, Netflix, TikTok, Spotify, and Tinder among others). We’ll look at mobile app usage statistics in more depth to see if an app has been installed doesn’t mean it’s being used.

People are using more mobile apps than ever before.

It’s time to look at how people use mobile apps, now that you’ve seen how users around the world obtain apps.

On average, smartphone users spend 3 hours and 10 minutes using their device. Apps account for about 90% of all smartphone usage, and over 2 hours and 51 minutes of the time are spent on them (app usage accounts for roughly 90% of all smartphone usage).

It is true that the average smartphone has 80+ apps installed, but people are not using all of them.

The average person uses 30 apps per month and 9 apps per day.

Over 60% of the apps on the average smartphone don’t get used every month.

Less than one-quarter of apps are used more than once after being downloaded, and then not used again.

We’ll continue to explore app usage statistics as we progress through this guide.

The percentage of users who return to an app after 30 days is known as mobile app retention rate. Similarly, the percentage of users who discontinue using an app after 30 days is known as mobile app churn rate.

You just learned that an app’s usage is not guaranteed after a download. Some of you may be familiar with this situation if your app has already been released.

The initial surge in downloads might have drawn the attention of app owners, but they are still having difficulty making money because people are not using the app. It is a problem that I frequently encounter when I am working with app owners.

How can you tell if this is happening to you? The best way to measure this is with retention and churn.

71% of app users lose interest and stop using an app within the first 90 days after downloading it.

How does this affect you and your application?

Keeping track of these metrics is crucial. Give users a reason to keep using your app in the future by keeping track of these metrics now.

Having said that, you should still strive to attract new users, even if you cannot retain all of your current ones.

It’s your duty to identify issues with the performance or user experience of your app, even if the app isn’t perfect. Even the most popular apps occasionally have bugs. If your app doesn’t perform well or has flaws, people will be more likely to quit using it. Come up with improvements and new editions of your app to boost its performance and user experience.

The most crucial applications are listed below.

We previously discussed app popularity in terms of what’s available to download, as well as the percentage of apps in each category.

People are downloading applications, but that doesn’t mean they’re using them. That fact is corroborated by the data we already examined.

Here are the applications users claim they cannot live without.

Looking at this list, you can see why the top apps are so popular. All of them serve different purposes and can be used daily.

It’s not that I recommend developing a mobile app to compete with one of these top apps, but rather I don’t recommend it.

Setting your sights on the moon is fine. You can still build a mobile commerce app for your business and be very successful. However, if you wanted your app to become the next Amazon, it would be a formidable challenge, to say the least.

Sure, you can build an app with GPS map services, but will it outperform Google Maps?

Global spending on Apple and Android devices is predicted to rise 22% in 2017, to $295 billion, according to Strategy Analytics.

There are evidently some download and usage differences between Apple and Android devices. Why is that?

It is true that users behave differently, even if they belong to the same platform. If you compare Apple and Android users, you will see that they behave differently.

Here is the latest data on how consumers spend money using their devices, from Q3 2021:

These figures reveal the amount spent on paid app downloads, subscriptions, and in-app purchases.

Despite having a smaller share of the mobile app market, Apple users still spend more money. Apple users dominate app spending, which is nearly double the rate of Android users.

Your app should be appealing to all users, but you will have a better chance of persuading iOS app users to purchase premium upgrades and other in-app items if you tailor your content to their needs and preferences.

Which age groups use mobile apps the most?

It is true that young people use mobile apps more than older people do.

However, you can still target other age groups. From the graph, you can see that people between the ages of 45-54 spend about 1 hour and 15 minutes per day using mobile apps, just 27 minutes less than people in the 25-34 age range.

Senior mobile users spend nearly 60 minutes on mobile apps each day.

The percentage of people using mobile devices and apps in the United States from April 2016 to April 2017.

People use mobile devices in different ways, and not all mobile usage is created equal. In addition to the variations in operating systems, usage will also differ based on the kind of mobile device people use.

Apps are getting smarter, and people are spending more time on their smartphones.

There are so many devices for consuming digital content.

People can access content and apps from smart TVs, smart home devices, smart watches, and smart cars, in addition to having smartphones, tablets, desktop computers, and laptops.

Certain categories are dominated by smartphone app usage, and these are the top categories people turn to their smartphones for.

96% of digital map time was consumed through smartphone apps in the United States. 86% of digital weather content was consumed through smartphone apps.

Smartphones are obviously the best choice for accessing maps and GPS services on the go, because logically, it makes sense.

However, if you scroll down a bit, you will see other categories that are not as noticeable.

People still choose to use smartphones at a high rate, despite the fact that there are so many ways to buy online. 47% of retail consumption, for example, comes from smartphone apps.

It’s still rather prevalent to use smartphones for news and information, even though smartphone usage is only 40% of the population.

Which one is better, smartphones or tablets?

Devices such as smart phones and tablets differ in some ways.

The number of smartphones worldwide is twice that of tablets (2.7 billion vs. 1.35 billion, as we saw earlier). However, tablet usage is beginning to catch up with smartphone usage.

More apps are being downloaded onto smartphones, and more smartphone apps are being used on a monthly basis, as you can see from the visual. But tablets aren’t far behind.

It makes sense that smartphones are used more often, since they are always within reach.

It’s a close call, but tablets still prevail over smartphones when it comes to paid apps or subscription purchases via an app. This category is likely to remain dominated by tablets for years to come.

The percentage of people using tablets has increased in recent years.

Despite the fact that tablets are not as popular as smartphones, they are used for specific purposes.

Let’s glance at the most preferred app sorts used on tablets.

The following bar chart illustrates the proportion of mobile devices used for gaming purposes. You can see that the usage of mobile devices for gaming purposes is higher than other purposes.

Because tablet screens are larger, gameplay and user experience will be enhanced. That’s probably why tablet users are willing to pay more for downloads and subscriptions.

The statistic shows the percentage of mobile app usage in different countries as of August 2017.

Everything other than behavior changes by location applies the same concept to app usage.

We’ll examine how mobile apps are used in different parts of the world. You can use this information to learn about your target audience or see if there are new markets you can enter.

The following chart illustrates the number of app downloads in different countries in the last year.

Let’s take a look at the most popular app store downloads by country.

Between 2012 and 2016, the app download surge in China has been 80%..

Despite India, Indonesia, and Brazil all having high growth rates, app download growth in India is particularly impressive. According to the graph, app downloads in India increased by an incredible 190% over the same period, while they increased by only 5% in the United States.

Developing economies across the world are becoming increasingly connected, which can make reaching international consumers with an app an appealing prospect for certain businesses.

How much time people spend on apps each month (in hours).

Let’s look at how much time people are spending on mobile apps in certain global markets.

The graph reflects what we saw previously. It makes sense that as India’s download rates rise, users would spend more time on apps.

Across the board, there is one thing that remains the same for these countries. The amount of time people spend on mobile apps is increasing yearly across the board. For example, in Italy, which has a much smaller population than India, the amount of time people spent using apps increased by 30% in 2019-2020.

How do Apple's app store and Google Play stack up against each other?

It’s no wonder to see that the Google Play Store accounts for the vast majority of app downloads worldwide, since Android dominates the global market share.

The global split is 39% for the Google Play Store and 61% for the Apple App Store, as you can see from the graph. However, things are different in Japan, where the Apple App Store dominates with a 52% share.

Finally, I would like to thank you for taking the time to read my article.

Apps are an integral part of our lives. The mobile app market will continue to thrive in 2022.

Every bit of data we examined suggests that mobile usage and adoption are at an all-time high. This is good news for anyone who has a mobile app or is hoping to build one. However, you cannot just design and manage an app without being familiar with the latest research and developments.

This guide can help you gain a better understanding of the mobile app market from an uptake and usage point of view.

King of App allows you to create an iOS and Android app simultaneously, without writing a single line of code, if you are ready to develop an app in 2022.

Which metrics are you monitoring to see how well your mobile app is doing?

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