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:
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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