The Apple App Store has always been a star performer compared to the Google Play Store, raking in more money than the Play Store could. The gap in performance however just stretched to its widest recorded in recent times during Q3, with the Apple Store almost generating double the revenue of the Play Store.
To put the above in figures, the Apple Play Store generated mobile app revenue to the tune of $12 billion in Q3, which makes for an increase of 23.3 percent over the $9.7 billion it made during the same period last year. In contrast, Google Play mustered just $6.2 billion during the quarter, which is a 21.5 percent improvement over the $5.1 billion it generated during Q3, 2017.
The above trend is in spite of the Google Play Store witnessing an increase in its download, witnessing more app downloads than the Apple App Store. However, with Play Store largely catering to a huge market segment comprising of mostly budget handsets, the App Store too sort of reflects a similar layout comprising mostly of free or low-cost apps. In any case, Android users has historically been known for spending less on app downloads than their iOS counterparts.
Meanwhile, as per research of the latest app downloads and spending trends, it is the subscription model that has been found to earn the maximum revenue. Towards that, Netflix has emerged to be the highest grossing entertainment app with revenue totaling $243.7 million across both Android and iOS. The Netflix feat is unique for a non-gaming app and has held on to the top slot for the third quarter in a row. The second and third slots have been occupied by Tinder and Tencent Video respectively.
Also of course gaming apps too has emerged the highest grosser, with the segment alone accounting for 76 percent across both the platforms. Proceeds from gaming apps also contributed $8.5 billion to the App Store revenue compared to $5.3 billion for the Play Store.
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Meanwhile, Bytedance has emerged to be a disrupter of sorts in app ranking for the most downloaded apps in the world. It has emerged to be the 4th most downloaded app after WhatsApp, Messenger, and Facebook, which again can be attributed to its recent acquisition of the app Tik Tok.
