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

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