App Annie: consumers spent $170B on mobile apps globally in 2021, up 19% YoY, downloading 230B apps; the average American spent 4.1 hours in apps per day
Consumer spending on mobile apps reached $170 billion in 2021, according to App Annie's newly released “State of Mobile 2022″ report … Source: App Annie .
Context & Ripple Effects
App Annie's prior reports had already tracked app spending from roughly $100 billion in 2018 to $120 billion in 2019 and about $143 billion in 2020, alongside rising download volumes. The new figures extend that arc: spending is growing faster than installs, after 2020 spending reached about $143 billion on 218 billion downloads.
U.S. usage had already moved ahead of live TV in App Annie's 2020 coverage; the reported 4.1 daily app hours gives that shift a more concrete measure of consumer attention.
First-order effects
- App publishers enter 2022 with a $170 billion global consumer-spending market, while 230 billion downloads broaden the pool of users they can convert into paying customers.
- For U.S. app publishers, 4.1 hours of daily in-app time makes retention and share of attention as consequential as new installs.
Second-order effects
- Because spending rose 19% while downloads increased from 218 billion in 2020 to 230 billion in 2021, publishers have a stronger incentive to improve monetization of existing users rather than rely solely on acquisition.
- App Annie's State of Mobile report becomes a more important benchmark for developers comparing their growth against a market where consumer spending has accelerated since the $120 billion recorded for 2019.
Third-order effects
- If spending continues to outpace download growth, mobile publishing shifts toward an engagement-and-monetization business, with the economic value of installed users rising relative to raw install totals.
The trend: Mobile is maturing from a download-growth market into one where consumer attention and spending per installed user drive the larger share of value.