App Store Economics Games Still Dominate But Charts Now Only Tell Part Of The Story

20,000 Foot View: Since the end of 2014, the two big mobile app storeshave marked a rise in Social and Media Content apps. But only so much changehas taken place, with the underlying dynamics only modestly different nowcompared to            months ago. For all the momentum of growth categories, app storeeconomics remain dominated by Games apps and by in-app purchases. However, witha growing amount of global app revenues unaccounted for by the app stores, andthe advent of new mobile experience distribution channels such as messengerbots, questions now arise about just how good a measure of the total appeconomy app store rankings still are.

Key Findings:

           of the top            grossing chartsare Games, compared to just            of the top            Free apps
• Social apps            Dating)account for            of the Top            apps
• The Top            and Free bothhave the range                       app categories compared to only            the grossing charts
• On average,            needed            monthly downloads to enter            top            grossing charts
• The top            app has a monthlyaverage of            downloads
• The average            of monthly appdownloads in the            free charts is            million
• Streaming services            formost music apps in the            grossing charts, while musician apps            in thepaid charts
• It costs                       milliondollars to enter the top            a further            million a month            stay there
• Getting from                       to                       per chart position, while            from            to            costs            position
• With many            increasinglyencouraging users to pay ‘off-portal’,            stores now only capture a            ofthe total app economy