Global consumer spending in top 100 non-game subscription apps grew 34% in 2020 to $13B; spending in App Store grew 32% to $10.3B, Play Store grew 42% to $2.7B
Stephanie Chan / Sensor Tower Blog :
Context & Ripple Effects
Mobile subscriptions were already gaining traction: U.S. revenue across the leading subscription apps rose 21% in 2019, while broader mobile-app spending reached a record $111B in 2020. This report isolates the recurring-revenue segment within that wider expansion.
The split matters because Apple’s store supplied most of the top-100 subscription-app total, even as Google Play grew faster. Subsequent coverage of another year of top subscription-app growth indicates that 2020 was part of a sustained expansion rather than a one-quarter spike.
First-order effects
- Publishers in the top 100 non-game subscription apps gained a $13B annual consumer-spending pool in 2020, with the App Store accounting for $10.3B and Google Play $2.7B.
- Google Play’s 42% growth outpaced the App Store’s 32% increase, making the smaller Android channel more consequential for subscription-app revenue growth.
Second-order effects
- Subscription-app publishers have a stronger incentive to improve Google Play acquisition and conversion alongside their App Store businesses, because growth in the two storefronts is no longer moving at the same rate.
- Apple remains the primary revenue channel for the leading subscription apps, so the cohort’s near-term economics remain more exposed to App Store performance than to Play Store growth.
Third-order effects
- The data points toward a mobile-app economy in which recurring subscriptions grow at least as fast as overall consumer app spending, raising the strategic value of retaining paying users rather than relying only on downloads or one-time purchases.
- If the growth-rate gap persists, scale in subscriptions will depend increasingly on operating across both stores: the App Store for current revenue depth and Google Play for incremental growth.
The trend: Non-game mobile apps are becoming a larger recurring-revenue business, with Google Play gaining ground on an App Store-led subscription market.