2021 a bumper year in mobile app and entertainment spending: report

A 25% surge in pandemic-driven mobile usage chalked up record spending and usage of gaming, video sharing, social/dating and productivity apps.

A mobile data and analytics provider has declared 2021 as a record-breaking year with total consumer spend across iOS and Google Play leaping by nearly 25% year-on-year to hit US$135bn.

Downloads also hit a new milestone in the provider’s data sets, growing 8% year-on-year to reach 140bn.

These numbers from App Annie’s data sets also show: 

• Video sharing and editing apps saw the highest growth in 2021 globally:
  • CapCut, MX TakaTak and Moj saw the largest growth in downloads
  • Consumer spend was driven by live and content streaming apps such as YouTube, Disney+, TikTok and Twitch
  • Business apps such as Zoom, Microsoft Office and Teams led the growth for usage
• Hyper casual games reigned supreme for downloads:
  Genshin Impact and Roblox saw the largest growth
  • Roblox,AmongUS , Pokemon Unite saw big increases in usage
• Other notable sectors that grew in mobile were social and dating:
  BIGO LIVE and Discord. Other notable video apps that saw the largest growth include Likee and Azar
  • Tinder topped the charts for growth in consumer spend globally among dating apps, followed by Bumble whose lifetime consumer spend just surpassed US$1bn; and Hinge which recently surpassed £250M in spend

According to the firm’s Head of Insights, Lexi Sydow: “One of the big takeaways is that the global population adapted to the pandemic by embracing a mobile lifestyle. The sectors that did well were the ones that brought people closer together both virtually and in person.”