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A 2022 year-end report from Data.ai predicts that consumer spending on in-app purchases and consumables will reach $129 billion. This marks a slight contraction in the market, down 2% from the $131 billion in 2021.
Given the downward economic pressure on the market, this slight dip is expected. Another factor driving this change is fewer COVID-19 restrictions. Consumers are spending more of their disposable income on experiences than they have since 2020.
iOS vs Android
Apple’s App Store still drives more spending than Google Play. iOS in-app spending is expected to total $83 billion, while Android will account for the remaining $46 billion.
Both Apple’s App Store and Google Play felt the market cool down. Both platforms saw their annual numbers decline at about the same rate. This means Apple still accounts for about 65 cents of every dollar spent on mobile apps this year.
Games still account for the bulk of spending on both platforms, but especially on Android.
While spending slowed, the number of first-time app installs continues to grow each year. Compared to 140 billion downloads and 8% growth in 2021, Data.ai expects 151 billion downloads in 2022 for 9% growth. This means an additional 11 billion apps were downloaded this year.
Android devices are driving this growth. New downloads increased 12% on Google Play to about 117 billion. By comparison, downloads on iOS are about the same, up 1% year-over-year to nearly 34 billion.
While iOS lags behind downloads, Android users in emerging markets are driving growth in downloads. These users accounted for 73% of global app downloads. However, this group accounted for 28% of spending. While Alphabet may not be feeling the benefits just yet, this user acquisition could literally pay off in the future.
Breakout games from Data.ai
While we don’t see too many surprises in Data.ai’s top performing games of 2022, mobile versions of PC and console favorites continue to thrive. Diablo Immortal and League of Legends: Wild Rift managed to make the top 10 consumer spending worldwide. Meanwhile, EA’s Apex Legends mobile version was number 6 in monthly active users.
Chinese localizations of top titles in particular outperform their native counterparts. Game for Peace is based on Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds, while Battle of Golden Spatula is a localized version of Teamfight Tactics.
Data.ai’s full report, including data on non-gaming apps, is now available.
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