Global consumer spending hit $65 billion on Apple’s App Store and Google Play combined in the first half of 2022, according to preliminary estimates from Sensor Tower Store Intelligence. This is about 1% higher than the $64.4 billion generated by both stores during the same period last year.
Apple’s App Store brought in roughly $43.7 billion from in-app purchases, subscriptions, and premium apps and games in the first half of this year, up 5.6% from $41.4 billion. Meanwhile, Google Play saw consumer spending drop 7.4% year-over-year, generating $21.3 billion compared to $23 billion.
This reverses the trend from the first half of 2021, when Google Play saw year-over-year growth. Global consumer spending on stores grew 30% in the first half of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, while the App Store grew 22.1%.
TikTok remains the highest-grossing non-gaming app worldwide across both the App Store and Google Play, including Douyin on iOS in China. In the first half of the year, consumers spent $1.7 billion on the app, soaring 85% from $920.7 million during the same period last year. TikTok has now reached about $5.5 billion in total lifetime revenue.
YouTube holds the second spot for non-gaming apps with an estimated $693.6 million in consumer spending.
Worldwide downloads on Google Play reached about 55.3 billion, down 1.3% from 56 billion. TikTok, including Douyin on iOS in China, once again led global downloads with roughly 373.2 million. So far, the app has hit around 3.7 billion downloads worldwide. Familiar apps made the top five, with Instagram and Facebook swapping places at second and third. WhatsApp and Snapchat followed at fourth and fifth respectively.
