App Annie: Global App Market Report for the Second Quarter of 2018

In the second quarter of 2018, global app downloads and consumer spending hit new highs, breaking the record set in the first quarter of 2018. Global iOS and Google Play app downloads exceeded 28.4 billion times, a year-on-year increase of 15%. This figure only includes first-time downloads, not reinstalls or app updates, so it is amazing. In addition, consumer spending also exceeded any previous quarter, reaching US$18.5 billion (including iOS and Google Play), a year-on-year increase of more than 20%.

The gap between Google Play and iOS downloads has widened significantly

Google Play's global downloads exceeded 20 billion in the second quarter of 2018, a year-on-year increase of 20%, and the gap with iOS widened by 25 percentage points to 160%.

Consistent with recent trends on Google Play, India was the primary driver of year-over-year download growth, with significant growth in both absolute downloads and market share on Google Play. Indonesia was another significant contributor to Google Play download growth. The largest year-over-year growth in iOS downloads was in the United States, Russia, and Saudi Arabia.

In terms of categories, Games, Video Players & Editors, and Sports apps drove the quarter-over-quarter growth in Google Play downloads in Q2 2018. The impact of Sports app downloads on iOS was even more pronounced. Sports apps were the category with the largest growth in iOS downloads worldwide, followed by Finance apps and Travel apps.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup has had a huge impact on the global growth of sports app downloads on iOS and Google Play since it opened on June 14. During the World Cup, fans around the world watched live events, checked match statistics, and shared comments on social media through their mobile devices, which provided a rare opportunity for app marketers.

In the first three weeks after the opening of the World Cup (June 10-30, 2018), among the top 10 sports apps in terms of usage time of Android phone users in the United States, Telemundo Deportes, FOX Sports GO and FOX Sports ranked first, second and third in terms of average data traffic per user, indicating that a large number of users watched the live broadcast of the World Cup on mobile devices. In the three weeks before the opening of the World Cup, these three apps did not enter the top 10 list of total usage time.

In the first three weeks after the World Cup opened, British users spent more than 6 million hours on the top 10 sports apps on Android phones, an increase of 65% over the three weeks before the opening.

Consumer spending on iOS remains dominant in Q2 2018

iOS App Store global consumer spending grew 20% year-over-year. Apps have become an indispensable part of people’s lives and have taken a place in daily consumption.

From a category perspective, Sports apps played a major role in the quarterly year-over-year growth in iOS consumer spend. Sports apps were the third largest category in terms of absolute growth in consumer spend, and also ranked third in quarterly year-over-year growth in share of consumer spend. Entertainment and Productivity apps ranked first and second in both absolute consumer spend and share of consumer spend, respectively. In-app subscriptions for streaming media were the primary factor behind the growth in consumer spend for Sports and Entertainment apps. On Google Play, Games, Social, and Music & Audio apps saw the largest absolute growth in quarterly downloads. Social and Music & Audio apps ranked first and second, respectively, in the Google Play quarterly year-over-year market share growth rankings.

It is worth noting that the market share of iOS and Google Play consumer spending in each region of the popular countries has increased year by year, which shows that Apps have a huge impact on the world and bring value to global users. On Google Play, South Korea, the United States, and Germany ranked in the top 3 in the growth ranking of consumer spending market share in the second quarter of 2018. On iOS, the United States, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom ranked in the top 3 in the growth ranking of iOS consumer spending market share.

The influence of mobile technology is undeniable in almost every country and industry. It will be interesting to see how apps continue to exert a greater influence on users’ lives and what records they will set in the App Store in the second half of 2018.

Top apps and games in Q2 2018 (ranked by downloads and consumer spending)

We analyzed the top apps and games worldwide in Q2 2018 and how they have changed since Q1. Voodoo’s simple gameplay made it a hit, making it into the top 10 games by combined iOS and Google Play downloads worldwide, and it reached the top position in Q2 2018. Video social networks also saw strong growth in Q2 2018, with TikTok, Musical.ly, and Kuaishou seeing strong growth in global downloads, driven by emerging markets. Pokémon Go celebrated its second anniversary on July 5, 2018, and consumer spend has increased significantly. Youku entered the top 10 for iOS and Google Play global consumer spend for the first time in Q1, likely in part due to live broadcasts of World Cup matches, and QQ also returned to the top 10.