Malcolm Owen
Apple is continuing to thrash Google in customer app spending, with iPhone owners outspending Android counterparts.
Over the years, Apple has continued to enjoy a lead on Google when it comes to consumer spending on apps. In Sensor Tower's Digital Market Index Report for the first quarter of 2024, this is still the case.
The report states that overall consumer spending on mobile platforms in general continued to be strong, with a 9.5% year-on-year improvement.
Most of the improvement to $35.8 billion stems from non-game transactions, which grew 19.4% year-on-year. Games saw revenue increase by just 2.9% by comparison, but it did breach the $20 billion barrier for the first time in two years.
Worldwide App Consumer Spend in Q1 2024 [Sensor Tower]On a platform-specific basis, iOS continued to rake in the most revenue overall, with a total of $24.6 billion in transactions for the quarter, up 11.5% year-on-year. By comparison, the Google Play Store saw overall revenue grow to $11.2 billion, up 5.3%.
For mobile games, Apple hauled in $13 billion, a near 6% year-on-year improvement. Meanwhile Google Play saw game revenue stay flat at $7.3 billion.
In terms of the number of downloads from the digital storefronts, Apple saw a 2.1% improvement year-on-year, rising to 8.4 billion downloads. This is the best total since Q2 2020, Sensor Tower adds.
Worldwide App Downloads in Q1 2024 [Sensor Tower]However, App Store downloads are dwarfed by Google Play, which saw 25.6 billion downloads in the quarter. This was actually a 5.2% reduction, but it continues to be more than three times the total downloads of the App Store.
Overall, Google Play continues to be the bigger store when it comes to downloads. Apple still leads when it comes to actual consumer revenue.
In total across both platforms, the United States is still the biggest market in consumer spend at $12.4 billion, up 16% YoY. China is in second with $6.0 billion, up 4%.
Entertainment apps continue to be the top revenue earners, with $4.1 billion in earnings for Q1 2024. This is also up 18% year-on-year.
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Christine McKee
Wesley Hilliard
Andrew Orr
William Gallagher
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3 Comments
Between the massive China market, iOS users' propensity to spend since the devices themselves are more expensive, and a dearth of third-party stores where Android has several viable ones, I would certainly expect them to. That said, the Google Play Store is still extremely profitable, just not a huge contributor to their revenue, unlike Apple's Appstore.
I'd personally expect perhaps double the revenue difference, and since it is more than that, IMO Google is lagging and might consider putting more resources into promotion. They are leaving money on the table. Google being Google, either they don't care or have other fish to fry instead.
Apple by and large offers a better service OS/Hardware/Online store than Microsoft, Meta, Spotify and Google not perfect just better and the intro of Recall and Gemini will probably extend that lead.
The EU and the DOJ will not be happy.......
"WAAAHHHHHH" cry the developers! "Apple has created the most lucrative app store in the world, attracting countless millions of the best customers ready and willing to spend money on my apps,,, and then Apple has the nerve to charge a 30% cut for that!"
Listen: you have a choice. Stop developing for iOS and go peddle your wares on Google Play.