Facebook has had a great year in terms of the number of app downloads, as four out of the five most downloaded apps belong to the social media giant. Based on App Annie’s year-end report, there has been a record-high app downloads across both iOS and Google PlayStore.
“Consumers worldwide are on track to download a record 120B apps across iOS and Google Play in 2019, a 5% year-over-year increase (excluding third-party Android),” writes Adithya Venkatraman from App Annie.
The top 5 most downloaded apps of the year are:
- Facebook Messenger
- WhatsApp Messenger
- TikTok
It is worth noting that the list excludes re-installs and app updates, meaning that only new downloads are taken into account – and it shows that Facebook’s dominance isn’t going anywhere.
Another interesting trend was the fact that consumer spending is estimated to grow steadily, out of which most growth belonged to games, followed by photo, video, and entertainment categories.
What’s more, the video and entertainment category is all set to continue growing with the inception of streaming services such as Disney Plus.
“Consumer spend is set to grow even faster at 15% year over year and will approach $90B worldwide in 2019 (excluding third-party Android)” says App Annie.
Also, 2019 has been a promising year for smartphones as the apps such as TikTok, Fun Race 3D, and Call of Duty: Mobile have had a successful run at the iOS and Google Play Store.
Apart from the most popular applications across the smartphone platforms, the App Annie also listed the apps that have seen the most growth in downloads and user spending between 2018 and 2019 under the name of “Breakout Apps and Games of 2019.”
Under the “Breakout Apps and Games” list, it was observed that photo and video editing apps took the lion’s share, with the app Likee bagging the first position.
Hyper-casual games have also fared well in 2019, accounting for seven out of the top ten breakout games.
Though 2019 ended up as a massive year for app downloads and consumer spending, it is predicted that 2020 might be even bigger as the projected consumer spending is estimated to be north of $30 billion on apps and $80 billion on games.
