In today’s modern world, you’re going to find more people with smartphones than you’re going to find using classic wire phones. This was not the case just a decade ago.
According to the latest app download statistics, almost 90% of mobile internet time is spent in apps. That leaves just 10% of the remaining time to be spent on, well, calling or sending out an SMS.
With the smartphone industry constantly growing, it comes as no surprise that app statistics show that every person with a smart device uses either Google Play Store, or the Apple iStore for games and mobile applications.
But let’s dig a little deeper and discover even more fascinating app statistics that will really open your eyes for 2021.
Quick Look into Interesting Numbers on Mobile Apps
For 2021, mobile app statistics show that people will continue to download any type of game, or app that triggers their attention, even if it’s just for a couple of minutes and after they’ll uninstall it.
There are over 3 billion smartphone users worldwide.
And all recent studies and projections show that this number will go up by a couple of hundred million in the upcoming years.
Users spend an average of 69-87% on mobile apps and less on websites.
The quality and ease of functionality is the key element that ignites this huge amount of interest for mobile apps. These application usage statistics clearly show a rising trend in time spent on apps.
76% of the global adult population owns a smartphone.
Trends show that the numbers will continue to grow in 2021.
95% of adults in South Korea own a smartphone.
This is yet another testament of the exponential growth of smart devices and mobile apps in developed countries.
Pokemon Go developers earned $16 million per day.
That’s the same amount as Clash of Clans. Pokemon Go was a hit mobile app in July 2016.
$50 billion is the amount paid by Apple to mobile developers since 2008.
According to iPhone app usage stats and to the latest published reports, Apple has been very generous with the mobile app developers it has worked with. The app development team of Clash of Clans was paid $1.5 million a day.
Given the fact that many users download apps daily, the number of app developers will continue to grow as well, in direct proportion to feel the need for socializing, education and entertainment.
How many apps are there in Google Play Store?
Google Play Store, along with Apple’s iStore, is the top place where smartphone users get their mobile apps from.
But how big is the number of apps on Google Play? How many games? How many educational apps?
2.56 million apps are available through the Google Play Store.
People who own Android smartphones have over 2.5 million apps to choose from.
1.85 million mobile apps are available for iPhone users to download according to the iOS App Store stats.
It’s pretty hard to imagine day-to-day life without them, and the app industry statistics make it clear that we enjoy downloading and using mobile apps.
What percentage of apps are successful?
We’ve all used or were exposed to at least one mobile app, at one point in time. Be it WhatsApp for communication purposes, or Facebook for social media, it’s becoming harder and harder to avoid having mobile apps on your phone.
And what would be the point of having a smartphone, if you are not going to use mobile apps, right? Let’s scroll over a few mind-blowing facts about the success rate of these smart applications, based on the latest mobile app statistics.
Less than 0.01 percent of all mobile apps will be successful.
This number means that only 1 in 10,000 will become financially viable, according to an estimate from 2018. This also means that 9,999 mobile apps will fail during the same year.
25% of all mobile users abandon a product/service after just one use.
This means that 1 in every 4 downloads will lead to the app being uninstalled.
47 percent of all mobile apps need more time for testing.
Taking into consideration this number, we have a clear understanding that almost half of all mobile apps that reach the public are not completely finished and require further development time.
How Much Time Do We Devote to Apps?
People spend more and more time on their smartphones and the majority of that time is spent using mobile apps.
The average user spent 4.9 hours a day browsing a smartphone in 2019.
This number grew by 11% in 2020.
As of March 2020, the average user devoted 5.5 hours daily to his smartphone.
This increase in the use of mobile apps and smartphones is also due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced most people to stay at home.
The majority of users have more than 10 apps installed on their devices.
A study conducted in 2019 revealed that the average user has 11 mobile apps installed on his smartphone, without counting the one pre-installed on their device.
84% of people check their phones within the first 15 minutes after waking up.
While this may have long-term health consequences, the numbers only seem to get higher.
46% of people pick up their phone 5 times during an hour-long meeting with friends.
That’s almost half of all the people, according to the same study. If this trend continues to rise, people may not even meet face to face anymore.
Will the numbers rise if the pandemic continues? Or will they decrease if restrictions will be lifted, making people spend more time outside? What’s your projection for 2021?
Apps download statistics: What do the numbers show?
At first glance, judging by the latest app downloads stats made available by Statista, we can clearly spot a serious edge in download numbers for the Google Play Store, as opposed to the iOS App Store.
Google Play Store Download Statistics
Over 100,000 new Android apps are released in the Google Play Store every month.
That’s roughly 3 times more than the numbers for the iOS App Store.
204 billion apps have been downloaded by users in 2019.
According to AppAnnie and updated Google Play Store statistics, the numbers will continue to grow in the next few years.
Google owns the majority of available apps on the market today.
Sensor Tower published a chart focusing on all the companies that own apps. This chart placed Google on top, with Facebook being a pretty close second.
Apple App Store Download Statistics
30,000 apps are released each month on the Apple App Store.
The numbers are not as high as the ones shown by Google Play Store due to the stricter verification process for developers who wish to publish their mobile apps on the Apple platform.
66% of Americans have not downloaded a new app in the past month.
This shows a slight decline in mobile app downloads for US citizens.
Over 20% of all mobile apps in the Apple App Store are game apps.
That’s twice as much as the number of business apps available to download on the same platform, according to the most popular app categories analyzed by Statista.
9.1 billion apps were downloaded in 2020, from the Apple App Store.
This number has been constantly growing year after year.
Mobile app vs Website statistics for 2020
The past few years have seen a huge change in internet users’ behaviour, meaning that more and more people started using mobile apps, as opposed to browsing websites.
We’re going to get a better understanding by reading the numbers shown below.
90% of smartphone users spend their time on mobile apps.
The remaining 10% of their mobile time is used to browse websites.
Mobile app users spend an average of 201.8 minutes per month shopping.
Mobile users are the most important segment in the e-commerce space, in clear contrast to website users.
Website users spend an average of 10.9 minutes per month shopping.
People who shop by browsing websites represent a very small percentage of the total revenue gained by online stores.
Mobile apps users view 4.2 times more products per session as opposed to mobile sites.
To put things in perspective, this means that mobile apps are 4 times more popular and user-friendly than your average website.
Android App Statistics – 2021
Among Us was the most downloaded Android app in January 2021.
According to the latest public android statistics app available on Google Play, Among Us has been downloaded a number of 39.3 million times.
Signal was the second most downloaded app in 2021, so far.
With over 27.3 billion downloads, Google Play stats show that Signal is the second most popular Android app of the moment.
789,855 is the number of Android app publishers present on the Google Play Store
And mobile apps just keep popping up online like there’s no tomorrow.
445,769 of Android apps are gaming apps.
The other 3,033,042 mobile apps which can be found on the Google Play store are non-gaming apps.
iOS app usage statistics – 2021
Facebook was voted an essential mobile app in the third quarter of 2020 by both iOS and Android users.
It just proves to show us the power of social media.
Zoom is Apple’s most downloaded free mobile app in 2020.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, some businesses and apps have seen their profits skyrocket.
The App Store is visited by over 500 million users weekly.
That’s more than the entire US population, every single week.
33 minutes per month is the average time spent in the App Store.
How’s that for a monthly routine? What better way to spend your time online than by browsing some new and fun mobile apps?
$19 billion is the amount of US dollars spent on the App Store in 2020.
Numbers will most definitely grow in 2021, given the constantly increasing user database.
Mobile App Usage Demographics Statistics
In this time and age, mobile apps are created for all members of the family.
Starting from toddlers to grandparents, there’s an app out there for every segment of the population, no matter the age, sex, or nationality.
89.2 billion downloaded mobile apps is the highest number of mobile app downloads reached by a country (China).
India came in second place with 17.2 billion app downloads, while the US ranked third with 11.9 billion downloads.
Mobile App Usage by Age
US adults aged between 35 and 54 years use mobile apps 7.7 times a day.
The national average mobile app usage in the US was 8.3 times per day.
61% of Millennials have downloaded at least one retail app.
There’s a reason why this segment is considered the motor of the worldwide economy.
58% of Millennials prefer shopping through mobile apps.
All numbers show that younger people will prefer to shop solely online using mobile apps in the next decade.
Moms and Multiculturalism are the next categories responsible for the most revenue within shopping apps.
This means that men over 40 years of age are the least likely to purchase something via mobile apps, according to a Facebook analysis.
Check out these App revenue statistics for 2021
98% of all app revenue comes from free mobile apps.
Whenever you’re using a free app, you’re paying for it with your time and attention.
$25,000 is the minimum cost for developing a mobile app.
Add this to your interesting smartphone apps statistics list. If you thought that all you needed to develop an app was an idea, you were mistaken.
You also need a serious budget and that doesn’t always guarantee success.
$462 billions is the total revenue generated by apps in 2019.
This includes both Google Play stats and the numbers coming from the Apple App Store.
$693 billions is the forecast for mobile apps revenue in 2021
Statista also provides the forecast for 2022, which is $808.7 billion in revenue.
Mobile App industry statistics
The world’s leading mobile app is Facebook Messenger when it comes to the number of downloads.
Facebook also owns two other giant apps: Instagram and WhatsApp.
WhatsApp takes 1st place for most active monthly users.
WhatsApp is the world’s leading messaging app for users at a global level.
Only 66% of smartphone users have a game app installed on their device.
Based on the most recent app usage data provided by Statista, this number is shadowed by social and messaging apps which are present on 95% of smartphones.
Users spend 50% of their mobile app time in social and communications apps
According to the same analysis, as quoted above, we find out that half of the time spent on mobile apps is spent on apps used for communication and social networking.
Conclusion
Mobile apps are a vital part of today’s modern society. We use apps to communicate with our friends and family. We use apps to learn languages, to improve our skills in a certain domain, to get around the city and the list of valuable uses can go on and on.
If everything goes according to the data and projections regarding the latest app statistics, it is very likely that we will see an even bigger boom in mobile app development over the next couple of years.
Judging by app download statistics available today, 2021 may be yet another record-breaking year in terms of the number of mobile apps developed and, most importantly, the revenue they generate.
What’s your favorite app? What’s the app you could not live without?
