In June 2023, Disney+ generated approximately 70.6 million U.S. dollars in global revenues through the Google Play Store. With over 50.7 million U.S. dollars, HBO Max ranked second, while TikTok ranked third with around 38 million U.S. dollars in revenues from Android users worldwide. The majority of high-grossing apps in the measured month were gaming apps.

Google Play Store apps overview As of the first quarter of 2021, Google Play Store was the leading app store worldwide by number of available apps. In 2021, Google Play Store saw more than 111 billion app downloads, while users generated nearly 48 billion U.S. dollars in consumer spending on mobile apps on the platform. In the first quarter of 2021, the most popular category of apps on the platform were gaming apps, followed by education apps, and business apps.

App revenue There are many different monetization models for mobile apps, the most common ones are free apps with in-app purchases, paid apps, paid apps with in-app purchases, and subscriptions. From humble beginnings, the mobile gaming market has flourished: gaming apps accounted for 83 percent of gross app revenues in the Google Play Store in 2020. In comparison, social media apps only accounted for three percent of app revenues. The Apple App Store paints a similar picture with gaming apps again accounting for the lion's share of revenue, albeit to a lesser extent than in the Google Play store.

Mobile internet users are spoilt for choice when it comes to the sheer variety and availability of mobile apps. As of the second quarter of 2024, gaming apps were the most popular app category in the Google Play Store, accounting for **** percent of available apps worldwide. Mobile education apps ranked second with a **** percent share. Google Play and app monetization Google Play is the biggest digital distribution platform for Android apps worldwide, offering users over **** million mobile apps to choose from. However, Google Play offers more than just apps – the platform also provides users with music, video, e-book downloads and rental services. Most mobile apps on Google Play are available for free. As of March 2024, around ** percent of Android apps could be downloaded without having to pay for them upfront, although this does not preclude other mobile app monetization strategies such as in-app advertising and in-app purchases. As of June 2023, the ranking of leading Android apps in the Google Play Store worldwide based on revenue consists mainly of streaming and video apps. Google Play main competitor: the Apple App Store The worldwide gross app revenue of the Google Play store amounted to **** billion U.S. dollars in the second quarter of 2024, a steady climb from the **** billion U.S. dollars a year before. However, in terms of app revenue, Google Play is lagging behind its eternal rival, the Apple App Store. During the same period, Apple’s own digital store generated **** billion U.S. dollars in mobile app revenues, with mobile gaming being the leading category for consumer spending on the platform. In June 2023, mobile-first apps DouYin and TikTok were the highest-grossing app among global iPhone users, generating roughly *** million U.S. dollars and *** million U.S. dollars in revenues, respectively.

How many apps are there in the Play Store? The number of available apps in the Google Play Store was most recently placed at 1.68 million apps, after surpassing 1 million apps in July 2013. Google Play Store Google Play was originally launched in October 2008 under the name Android Market. As Google’s official app store, it offers its customers a wide range of applications and digital media including music, magazines, books, film, and TV. As of April 2021, the ranking of the top-grossing Android apps worldwide is dominated by mobile games with Coin Master, Garena Free Fire, and PUBG mobile leading the ranking. This hardly comes as a surprise as it is estimated that gaming apps will account for over 70 percent of Google Play app revenues in 2024. As most apps in the Google Play Store are available for free, the company needs to utilize effective business models to secure healthy revenue. How do apps make money? Despite the robust gaming app revenues, most gaming apps are free to download and rely on monetization via in-app advertising or in-game purchases of items such as boosters and accessories. A November 2021 survey of mobile app publishers found that video ads were the most popular mobile app monetization model, followed by display ads and in-app purchases. Additionally, monetizing via subscriptions has proven an effective model for several highly popular apps, with subscription revenues hitting 18.3 billion U.S. dollars in revenues in 2021.

In 2024, the United States saw almost ************ U.S. dollars in revenues from the Google Play Store. Despite being one of Apple's first markets, the U.S. was also the highest-grossing market for the Google Play Store by far. Android users in Japan grossed ************U.S. dollars in the same period, while the Google Play Store in the United Kingdom saw in-app revenues of approximately ****** million U.S. dollars in 2024.

In February 2025, ***************** was the top-grossing gaming app in the Google Play Store worldwide. The survival game title generated ***** million U.S. dollars in revenues from Android users. *********** was the second-most-grossing gaming app title with approximately ** million U.S. dollars in revenue during that month.

In April 2025, Coin Master was the top-grossing gaming app in the Google Play Store in France. The casual game title generated over 1.8 million U.S. dollars in revenues from Android users. Monopoly Go! was the second-most grossing gaming app title with approximately 1.7 million U.S. dollars in revenue during that month.

In June 2024, Fitbit was the top-grossing health and fitness app in the Google Play Store worldwide. The platform generated over 4.76 million U.S. dollars in revenues from Android users. Strava was the second highest-grossing health and fitness app with roughly 3.1 million U.S. dollars in revenues from global Android users in the examined month. MyFitnessPal ranked third, having generated around 2.8 million U.S. dollars in revenues in the last examined month.

In September 2022, Candy Crush Saga was the top-grossing Android app in the Google Play Store in the United States. The strategy game generated around 23.42 million U.S. dollars in revenues from Android users. TikTok was the second-most popular app with approximately 14.11 million U.S. dollars in revenues from U.S. users in the examined period.

Entertainment apps were the highest-grossing category by far among mobile consumers in the United States. In 2024, entertainment apps generated over **** billion U.S. dollars in revenues. Casual gaming apps generated around *** billion million U.S. dollars in revenues. Strategy gaming apps represented the ***** highest-grossing app category, with *** billion U.S. dollars in revenues from the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store in 2024.

In April 2025, ************ was the top-grossing gaming app in the Google Play Store in the United States. The board game title generated ***** million U.S. dollars in revenues from Android users. ********************** was the second-most-grossing gaming app title, with approximately ***** million U.S. dollars in revenue during that month.

Throughout 2023, cloud storage Google One was the highest-grossing app in the Google Play Store in Great Britain, generating more than **** million U.S. dollars in revenues from the store users. Mobile gaming app Coin Master was the second highest-grossing popular app in the country, with over ** million U.S. dollars in revenues from British users in the examined period.

In September 2022, Coin Master was the top-grossing app in the Google Play Store in Germany. The game generated more than **** million U.S. dollars in revenues from Android users. TikTok was the second-most popular app with *** million U.S. dollars in revenues from German Android users.

According to research from SimilarWeb, Teen Patti Gold, the family card game app led the list of apps that were on the trending down list among the top grossing ones on the India Google Play Store as of June 2021. Zynga Poker, the card game app also lost popularity in terms of usage ranks during the same time period.

In the year 2021, the digital content platform Google Play generated gross revenues of approximately ** billion U.S. dollars through mobile apps. This is a global consumer spending increase of about ** percent, compared to the previous year. With gross revenue reaching over **** billion U.S. dollars, Apple’s App Store remained in the lead.

Leading apps on Google Play Store Some of the leading Google apps that can be found on the Play Store included Google Play Games and YouTube Music, however, with over ** million downloads worldwide, Google Meet took the top spot in 2020. The most popular kind of app on the platform was by far the gaming app: in the first quarter of 2020 alone, gaming apps accounted for approximately ** billion downloads. Tool and entertainment applications ranked second and third in terms of download count, respectively.

Leading mobile gaming apps Having generated over 100 million U.S. dollars in revenue worldwide, Coin Master was the leading mobile gaming app on the Google Play Store. Other successful and familiar gaming apps that could be found on many smartphones around the world included Pokémon GO, Candy Crush Saga, and PUBG MOBILE – NEW ERA.

In September 2022, TikTok was the top-grossing app in the Google Play Store in Canada, generating approximately 630 thousand U.S. dollars in revenues from Android users. The gaming app Candy Crush Saga was the second-most popular app with around 601 thousand U.S. dollars in revenues from Canadian Android users.

In June 2025, Candy Crush Saga was the top-grossing gaming app in the Google Play Store in Sweden. The action game title generated ******* U.S. dollars in revenues from Android users. Coin Master was the second-most-grossing gaming app title with approximately ******* U.S. dollars in revenue during that month.

In August 2022, TikTok was the top-grossing app in the Google Play Store in Switzerland, generating approximately 318 thousand U.S. dollars in revenues. Mobile gaming app State of Survival followed, with more than 136 thousand U.S. dollars in revenues from Android users. Mobile gaming app Lara Croft GO ranked third with 116.8 thousand U.S. dollars in revenues from the Google Play Store in Switzerland.

In March 2024, cloud storage app Google One was the highest-grossing app for Android users in Sweden, with *** thousand U.S. dollars in revenues. Entertainment app Disney+ ranked second, and it generated around ***** thousand U.S. dollars in revenues from Google Play users in Sweden. Social video app TikTok generated *** thousand U.S. dollars in revenues during the examined period.

As of February 2022, the majority of the leading apps appearing first to users on the Google Play Store results page were free or freemium apps. Paid downloads appeared to be a less frequent monetization option, but still interested *** percent of the highest-ranking gaming apps, as well as *** percent of the highest-ranking health and fitness apps. Approximately ** percent of all finance apps were free, while around **** percent adopted a freemium model. Approximately ** percent of the highest-grossing social media apps adopted a freemium model, while around ** percent were fully free.

In February 2025, MONOPOLY GO! was the top-grossing gaming app in the Google Play Store in Canada. The board game title generated more than *** million U.S. dollars in revenues from Android users. Last War:Survival Game was the second-most grossing gaming app title with approximately *** million U.S. dollars in revenue during that month.