As of January 2025, around 13.7 percent of paid iOS apps admitted collecting data from users engaging with their mobile products. In comparison, approximately 53 percent of free-to-download iOS apps reported they collect private data from users worldwide, while approximately 86 percent of paid apps have not declared whether they collect users' privacy data.

Key Apple App Store StatisticsApple App Store App and Game RevenueApple App Store Gaming App RevenueApple App Store App RevenueApple App Store App and Game DownloadsApple App Store Game...

In the first quarter of 2024, users downloaded approximately 25.6 billion apps from Google Play. This represents a decrease compared to the first quarter of the previous year, when Android users downloaded approximately 27 billion apps from the Google Play Store. In contrast, mobile app only generated roughly 8.4 billion downloads in the Apple App Store. The Google Play platform has always made up the bulk of app downloads but the Apple App Store is stronger in terms of revenue generation.

In 2026, consumers are projected to download 143 billion mobile apps from the Google Play Store, up by almost 30 percent from 111 billion apps downloaded in 2021. By comparison, consumers will amass approximately 38 billion downloads from the Apple App Store in 2026, an increase of around 15 percent compared to the number of downloads in 2021.

In June 2023, search engine Google was the most-downloaded app for iPhone in the Apple App Store worldwide. The app generated around 6.36 million downloads from iPhone users. CapCut was the second-most popular app with approximately 6.16 million downloads from global users in the examined month.

During the first half of 2024, China recorded over 3.15 billion app downloads from the Apple App Store. The United States market ranked second, with roughly three billion app downloads among iOS users in the region. Japan ranked third, as users downloaded approximately 676 million apps from the Apple App Store in the first half of 2024.

In July 2024, Shazam: Find Music & Concerts was the most popular app published by Apple, generating approximately 4.6 million downloads from iOS and Google Play Store users during the month. Second-ranked Move to iOS was downloaded three million times from global users. Developer-specific app TestFlight, which allows app publishers to test beta versions of their product to publish on the Apple App Store was the third most popular app published by Apple, with 1.66 million downloads

In the first quarter 2023, total combined Apple App Store and Google Play app downloads amounted to an estimated 35 billion. In the most recent examined period, global app downloads across the two major platforms are estimated to have experienced an increase of less than one percent compared to the previous quarter.

In 2024, the social media app Threads was downloaded approximately 492,800 times to iPhones and iPads in Finland. Telegram ranked second, with approximately 141,700 downloads. Instagram followed with around 117,200 downloads on iPhones and iPads across the country in the examined month.

Worldwide, during the first half of 2023, the United States was estimated to having the highest amount of shopping app downloads on iOS, with around 234.5 downloads. China followed after the Unites States, with only a bit more than half the amount of downloads, at about 131.3 million. Japan had the third highest number of downloads with less than half of the amount estimated in China.

In the first half of 2022, users downloaded approximately 55.3 billion apps from Google Play, down by around 700 million downloads compared to the corresponding period in 2021. Mobile app only generated roughly 16 billion downloads in the Apple App Store, down by around 400 million from the first half of 2021.

In September 2024, ChatGPT was downloaded over 158,000 times to iPhones in Sweden, making it the most downloaded app in the Scandinavian country among iOS users. Social app Threads ranked second, with around 135,000 downloads, while gaming app Block Blast! followed with more than 122,000 downloads in the examined month in the country.

In 2021, gaming apps accounted for 27 percent of global Apple App Store app downloads, representing the most downloaded app category for Android users. Utilities app, entertainment apps, as well and photo and video apps claimed a seven percent download share each from global iOS users during 2021. By 2026, downloads of mobile gaming apps on the Apple App Store are estimated to account to 26 percent of the total, while shopping apps will account for roughly six percent of all iOS downloads.

In September 2022, BeReal was the most-downloaded app for iPhone in the Apple App Store in the United States. It generated over seven million downloads from iOS users. TikTok was the second-most popular app, with approximately 3.8 million downloads U.S. iPhone users during the examined period.

In March 2024, the podium of the most downloaded apps for iOS users went to two ByteDance apps. TikTok was the most downloaded mobile app worldwide for iOS users, with 16 million downloads. ByteDance-owned video editing app CapCut ranked second, with 10 million downloads. Google Maps and Instagram ranked third, with approximately nine million downloads in the last examined period.

While the number of downloads kept increasing between 2016 to 2022. However, in 2023, the global app downloads stagnated, reaching 257 billion downloads and experienced only a one percent year-over-year increase.

The app market Mobile apps are projected to generate more than 613 billion U.S. dollars in revenues in 2025, with mobile games making up the biggest revenue share among all app categories. In 2020, gaming and video made up the largest shares of the mobile content market for the year. The ePublishing and education sectors still saw a limited market for their mobile content, despite the increase in apps usage brought by the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting regular school system settings.

App monetization: a changing landscape As an indispensable part of the smartphone experience, the largest number of apps in the major app stores are free to download. However, in recent years, the growth of global consumer spending on apps has shown users’ healthy appetite for premium services or paid app content. In the second quarter of 2021, Android consumers have spent an average of 5.31 U.S. dollars per handset, after peaking in the last quarter of 2020 reaching an average of 10.6 U.S. dollars per mobile device. As of September 2021, the number of paid apps has shrunk to make up only six percent and four percent of the total numbers in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store, respectively. In comparison, apps offering subscription plans are becoming increasingly popular in the monetization landscape. In 2020, the leading subscription apps in the Apple App Store generated more than 10 million U.S. dollars in global revenues.

As of January 2025, 95.37 percent of all iOS apps were available for free. In comparison, in the Google Play Store, the share of freely available apps was 96.96 percent.

On the third of June, 2023, the ChatGPT app was downloaded approximately 505 thousand times from global users. The app, which was launched on May 18, 2023 in the United States first, saw the largest amount of downloads from the U.S. and Brazil in the examined period. ChatGPT was launched at the end of November 2022 by the San Francisco-based OpenAI.

From 2018 to 2020, search has consistently remained the preferred download source for apps on the Apple App Store worldwide. In 2020, 59 percent of iOS users downloaded apps after finding them through their app store search tool, making the category regain three points from the previous year as app download source. App referral was confirmed to drive the second highest share of downloads, while downloads generated via browsing accounted for around seven percent of the total downloads.

In August 2024, casual games had more than 350 million downloads worldwide, making them the most downloaded category of the month. Shopping apps followed with over 174 million downloads during the same examined period. Social apps ranked third by registering approximately 172.93 million global downloads in the last examined month.