Data and analytics platform data.ai (formerly App Annie) announced that cumulative mobile app consumer spending this year exceeded $100 billion (approximately KRW 134 trillion). This year is the first time total consumer spending exceeded $100 billion in three quarters.
data.ai announced through its third-quarter status that consumer spending in the third quarter recorded $33.6 billion (KRW 45 trillion), a 3.7% increase compared to last year, reaching a cumulative $101.1 billion (KRW 135 trillion). Consumer spending by quarter also recorded stable figures, including $33.7 billion in the first quarter (+4.3% compared to the same period last year) and $33.8 billion (+6.3%) in the second quarter. Korea showed strong growth in the third quarter, recording $2.06 billion, a whopping 34% increase compared to the same period last year.
The time it takes to reach a cumulative $100 billion is also rapidly shortening. While it took December in 2020 and October in 2021 and 2022, this year, it exceeded $100 billion even before the end of the third quarter for the first time in history. This means that the growth potential of the mobile app market, especially scalability through various apps and products, is increasing.
In the third quarter of 2023, iOS will achieve $21.2 billion (KRW 28 trillion), and Google Play will reach $12.4 billion (KRW 17 trillion), confirming that iOS contributed about 60% to consumer spending. On the other hand, iOS only grew by 1% compared to the same period last year, but Google Play was shown to be catching up, achieving a whopping 10% growth.
Non-game (app) sectors appeared to be the primary driver of consumer spending in the third quarter. In the non-game sector, iOS grew by 10.6%, and Google Play increased by 20% compared to last year, showing a trend of steady growth through in-app subscription products. In-app subscription products motivate mobile consumers to continue using apps and are positioned as excellent strategic products that simultaneously retain existing users and attract new users. Meanwhile, Google Play grew by 5% in the gaming sector, but iOS decreased by 5.6%.
Looking at the markets that have seen the most growth over the past year, the United States led the way, with consumer spending increasing by more than $600 million in the third quarter of 2023 compared to the same period last year. Nearly one-third of all consumer spending in the third quarter occurred in the United States, and countries that showed significant growth compared to the same period last year included South Korea and the United Kingdom.
The mobile market is showing stability in the download sector, exceeding 38 billion quarterly downloads for five consecutive quarters. The number of downloads in this third quarter was 38.4 billion, a slight decrease compared to last year, with iOS achieving 9.5 billion downloads and Google Play reaching 28.9 billion downloads, three times that of iOS. We can see that iOS grew by 9.2% globally, but Google Play decreased by 3.7%. This is because although Google Play grew by 1.5% in all countries except India, India, which has a large market, fell by 13% this time. It appears that this has led to a decrease in the total figure.
The fastest-growing markets in the third quarter of 2023 compared to the same period last year were China, the United States, and Bangladesh, with China showing positive growth in recent quarters and reaching downloads close to pre-pandemic levels in the third quarter compared to the same period last year. There was an increase of approximately 170 million on iOS alone. In the United States, downloads increased by 130 million during the same period, and in Bangladesh, the number of downloads increased by nearly 86 million compared to last year. In Korea, the number of downloads reached approximately 500 million in the third quarter, an increase of 38 million compared to last year.
Among the top apps in the third quarter, Meta’s ‘Threads,’ launched in early July, surpassed 150 million downloads in the first week, achieving a record of downloads 5.5 times faster than any other existing app. With Thread entering the charts, TikTok, which had maintained its top spot for the previous two quarters, lost its first place. As a result, Meta occupied a whopping four positions in the top 5 download charts.
In the consumer spending sector, ‘TikTok’ remains at the top, followed by ‘YouTube’ and ‘Tinder’. Regarding monthly active users (MAU), social media powerhouse apps maintain their positions with no change from the previous quarter.
In the top game chart, Turkish game company Dream Games’ ‘Royal Match’ climbed five places from the last quarter, followed by ‘Honor of Kings’ and ‘Candy Crush Saga.’ It ranked first for the first time, beating famous works such as Meanwhile, Scopely’s ‘MONOPOLY GO!’ rose 25 places to the consumer spending chart by leveraging a solid IP like games such as ‘Pokémon GO,’ and NCSoft ‘s masterpiece ‘Lineage M’ also entered the top 10 in the third quarter.
As for the domestic game rankings in the third quarter, various new games such as ‘Mini Game Heaven’ and ‘Growing Seven Knights,’ which have been attracting attention from users even before their release, settled on the download charts. In the consumer spending category, Kakao Games’ new MMORPG ‘Ares: Rise of Guardians,’ led by ‘Lineage M,’ which entered the global chart at number 10, also settled at number 7. In the MAU category, famous works such as ‘Roblox,’ ‘Infinite Stairs,’ ‘Brawl Stars, and ‘Bangtan Special Forces maintain the top ranks.
A data.ai official said, “In-app subscription products for mobile apps provide convenience to mobile consumers while also providing opportunities for a steady experience,” adding, “Mobile publishers are using more systematic and AI-based data in establishing strategies for the success of apps. “Through analysis, we are building a highly reliable blueprint,” he added.
