Number of Mobile App Downloads in 2020: Statistics, Current Trends, and Predictions

How many people play games on phones?

In June 2016, 88% of digital gaming time was spent via
mobile apps. Clash of Clans became the top grossing gaming
app in May 2019^[6], generating more than $1.54 million in
revenue per day.

How much is the average price of an app?

The average price for a gaming app is about 49
cents^[7], while the average app price is a little
over $1. Common app revenue models include free apps with in-app
purchases, paid apps without in-app purchases and paid apps with
in-app purchases. Gaming apps frequently generate revenue through
in-game item purchases.

What is the most popular mobile game
ever?

Mobile games have gained popularity over the past five years or
so. Below are the top 10 most played games of all time based on the
number of players who played the game.

What is the most popular app in the
world?

Whatsapp is one of the most popular and widely used chat
applications, which also supports communication between
international phone networks. Market leader Facebook was the first
social networking site to reach 1 billion registered
accounts^[8] and currently has almost 2.41
billion monthly active users.

Around 2 billion internet users are using social networking
sites and these figures are still expected to grow as mobile device
usage and mobile social networks continuously gain traction.

How many mobile app users are there?

Mobile accounts for almost half of internet traffic worldwide.
In the last quarter of 2019, mobile devices (excluding
tablets) generated 52.6% of global website
traffic^[9], steadily hovering around the 50% mark since
the first quarter of 2017.

The Manifest reports that app users are most likely to
underreport how often they check apps^[10]. The largest percentage of
respondents say they check their mobile phones 1 to 10
times daily. But numbers are most likely higher since
people often have a hard time estimating their own behavior,
especially when it comes to mobile app usage.

What are the most popular social media apps in
2019?

Despite a turbulent 2018, Facebook remains to be the top
social network in the US, with 169.76 million mobile
users^[11] accessing the app version in September
2019. Coming in at second and third place respectively are
Facebook’s other properties – Instagram and Facebook Messenger.

How many mobile apps are there in 2019?

As of the first quarter of 2019, mobile app users download
between 2.6 million Android, and 2.2 million iOS apps^[12]. According
to App Annie, the total number of app downloads in 2018 is
194 billion, up from 178 million in 2017.

During the fourth quarter of 2019, according to Statista,
Android users were able to choose between 2.57 million
apps^[13], making Google Play app store the
one with the highest number of available apps. Not
surprisingly, Apple’s App Store was the second-largest app store
with almost 1.84 million available apps for
iOS.

Meanwhile, India has become the world’s fastest-growing market
for mobile applications on both the Apple iOS and Google’s Android
Play Store^[14], with a huge spike in revenue during the
first quarter of 2018.

How many mobile app users are there in the
US?

In 2018, the number of smartphone users in the US is
estimated to be at 257.3 million^[15]. It’s safe to say
that the number of mobile app users in the US are around that
figure.

The number of smartphone users in the US is on a steady rise and
will steadily increase, with all the advances in telecommunication
technology.

How many mobile app developers are there?

App development is a very exciting opportunity, since the
potential for app developers to hit it big with one popular app,
has led to an explosion of freelancers and programmers working in
the app development industry.

There are an average of more than 30,000 new apps
submitted to the iTunes App store alone each month. Even
more so for competing platforms like Android and Windows.

In mid 2016, around 130 billion apps have been downloaded from
the Apple App Store^[16] worldwide and an estimated 65
billion apps have been downloaded from Google Play.

A 2015 survey of app developers and publishers revealed that the
average revenue per app were higher for those developed for
the Windows Phone than those for iOS, which generates
approximately a third less in revenue, and Android apps, which is
less than half of that of Windows.

What is the percentage of successful
apps?

Despite the chance of making millions when an app hits big,
being a mobile app developer is still challenging and tough.
Gartner^[17] reported that less than 0.01% of
all consumer mobile apps became successful in 2018.
Nevertheless, apps continue to be a common development goal and
product focus for aspiring entrepreneurs.

What is the average app size?

Nowadays, the average app size for iOS mobile apps is
38MB while 15MB is the standard for Android mobile
apps^[18].

Which is the most expensive Android app?

There are approximately 2 million apps on the Android platform –
45% are free and the rest of the apps cost between $1 and
$3 on average^[19].

In October 2015, Google set an upper limit for
how much an app or game could cost on Playstore, so you won’t find
anything over $400.

Before it was taken down, developer Abu Moo has taken
“expensive” to a whole new level^[20]. But instead of
creating one expensive app, he uploaded a series of applications
(six to be exact) on Play Store at $400 each. The
apps were simply named after precious gems. Here’s the kicker—the
apps don’t have any features at all! They are simply widget that
shows the gem on your home screen.

In terms of existing apps on the Play Store, 5-Minute
Sports Medicine is the most expensive^[20]. It’s an
educational app, which contains information on sports medicine.

Which is the highest paid in the Play
Store?

As expected, social networking apps had some of the highest
revenue collected on Play Store. According to Sensor Tower,
Tinder is the highest-grossing app in 2018,
earning $274.9 million. Cloud-based file storage Google
drive came in second with $164.3 million gross
earnings.

Pandora,a music streaming platform, is the
third highest grossing with $132 million. Instant messaging
platform Line is ranked fourth with $105.4 million earnings.
Bigo Live, a live-streaming social network round
up the top 5 with $100.4 million.

How many mobile health apps are there?

The mobile health app market has developed into a whole new
interesting category on its own.It refers to medicine and public
health services through smartphones. It’s been identified as
one of the top three fields to speed up the growth
of mobile devices.

There are mobile health apps available for both consumers and
healthcare professionals. In 2017, the estimated number of
available mobile health apps on average is
325,000^[21], with a 25% year-on-year growth.

How many apps does the average person have in
2019?

A typical smartphone user spends 2 hours and 15 minutes
using apps every day^[22]. According to research, there are
between 60 and 90 apps installed on an average smartphone. But not
all of these apps are fully utilized. As a matter of fact, the
majority of mobile time of users is spent using three apps
only.

Despite the fact that an average person uses 25 apps monthly,
96% of that time is split between ten apps only. As a matter of
fact, 75% of apps are used only once after being
downloaded^[3].

What to expect in mobile app development this
2020?

The popular apps that thrive in 2019 might not enjoy the same
success in 2020. One of the major adjustments app developers need
to do is building apps for foldables. With Samsung
introducing the OLED foldable display, the operating systems are
getting ready to make use of this technology to improve smartphone
experience of users.

Another trend that will be wildly popular is augmented
reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR)^[23].
Technology giants like Apple and Google are already creating tons
of new use cases using AR. For instance, Google is about to
introduce a new AR feature for Google Maps^[23], which will aid users
to get real time directions from their camera phones. Of course,
Mixed Reality
(MR)^[23] is also on the
horizon.

These are just two of the many new exciting developments in
mobile app development. Most developments are improvements of
existing technology such as cloud storage, wearable app
integration, and on-demand apps^[23].

The emerging mobile app platform development technologies,
rising backend platforms and microservices, combined with the new
hardware capabilities, will continue to drive the evolution of
mobile apps.

References:

1. ^^[24]Number
   of mobile app downloads worldwide from 2016 to 2019^[25]
2. ^^[26]Mobile
   app usage – Statistics & Facts^[27]
3. ^^[28]Mobile App Download and
   Usage Statistics (2019)^[29]
4. ^^[30]25 Mobile App Usage
   Statistics To Know In 2019^[31]
5. ^^[32]Worldwide mobile app revenues in 2014 to
   2023^[33]
6. ^^[34]Top
   grossing iPhone mobile gaming apps in the United States as of
   February 2020, ranked by daily revenue^[35]
7. ^^[36]Most
   popular Apple App Store categories in November 2019, by share of
   available apps^[37]
8. ^^[38]Most
   popular social networks worldwide as of January 2020, ranked by
   number of active users^[39]
9. ^^[40]Percentage of mobile device website traffic
   worldwide from 1st quarter 2015 to 4th quarter 2019^[41]
10. ^^[42]Mobile
    App Usage Statistics 2018^[43]
11. ^^[44]Most
    popular mobile social networking apps in the United States as of
    September 2019, by monthly users^[45]
12. ^^[46]App
    Download and Usage Statistics (2019)^[47]
13. ^^[48]Number
    of apps available in leading app stores as of 4th quarter
    2019^[49]
14. ^^[50]India
    is fastest growing market for mobile apps in world: App Annie
    report^[51]
15. ^^[52]Number
    of smartphone users in the United States from 2010 to 2023 (in
    millions)^[53]
16. ^^[54]Apple
    App Store now has 2M apps, 130 billion downloads^[55]
17. ^^[56]Gartner Newsroom^[57]
18. ^^[58]Average App File Size: Data for Android and
    iOS Mobile Apps^[59]
19. ^^[60]20
    Most Expensive Android Apps In The World | 2020 Edition^[61]
20. ^^[62]Most
    Expensive Android Apps In The world^[63]
21. ^^[64]mHealth – Statistics & Facts^[65]
22. ^^[66]The
    average smartphone user spends 2h 15m a day using apps – how about
    you? [Poll]^[67]
23. ^^[68]Top
    Mobile App Development Trends in 2020^[69]