How Mobile Apps are Adjusting to the New Virtual Lifestyle - Sensor Tower
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Mobile App Industry Trends 2021 — How Mobile Apps are Adjusting to the New Virtual Lifestyle
©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
Executive Summary:
Highlights
Hypercasual continues to be a hot trend in Stock trading and cryptocurrency apps continue
mobile gaming, with the top hypercasual titles to see high volume in demand going into the new
surpassing 10 billion installs in 2020. Easy-to-play year. IQ Option and Expert Option were the top two
games gained massive popularity amid COVID-19. trading apps by downloads in 2020.
More core games are adopting in-app More consumers being home has led to a 39
subscription models. Subscriptions in games saw a percent Y/Y growth rate among top smart home
slight correlation with higher long-term retention apps. Home-centric lifestyles have inspired
rates than games without them in 2020. consumers to invest in smart technology.
2
©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
Industry Trends 2021: Table of Contents
Mobile Industry Trends 2021 report offers analysis on the latest trends for the category:
5. 2020 Industry Recap
An overview of the app industry in 2020 along with top categories and countries
11. Mobile Gaming
14. Hypercasual Game Adoption Takes Off
Examine how hypercasual games grew their massive popularity in 2020
18. Mobile Games Find Success with Subscriptions
A look at games that use in-app subscriptions and how it affects retention
22. Mobile Apps
25. The Booming Fintech Market
The global fintech market continues to experience high adoption
30. The Rise of 5G and Smart Home Apps
A look at smart home apps and how quarantines affected growth
33. Growth of Mobile Hangout Apps Accelerates
COVID-19’s impact on adoption and demographics of social apps
©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
About This Data:
Methodology
Sensor Tower’s Mobile Insights team compiled the download estimates
Could your business benefit from
provided in this report using the Sensor Tower Store Intelligence platform. access to Store Intelligence insights
and the highly accurate data used
● Figures cited in this report reflect App Store and Google Play
to build this report? See the fastest
download estimates for January 1, 2018 through December 31, 2020.
● Download estimates presented are on a per-user basis, meaning that growing apps and publishers by
only one download per Apple or Google account is counted towards downloads or revenue.
the total.
● Downloads of the same app by the same user to multiple devices,
updates, or re-installs of the same app by the same user are not
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counted towards the total.
● Android app install estimates represent downloads from the Google
Play Store only. Sensor Tower does not provide download estimates
for third-party Android stores.
Store Intelligence 4
2020 Mobile App Market Recap
©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
2020: An Eventful Year in Mobile Apps
Top industry events in 2020 corresponding to installs
Monthly Worldwide Installs
Byte, the short video app from the co-founder of Vine, was
released and generated 1.3M installs in its first week. Jan 10.8B
Feb 10.4B
Tiktok surpassed 120M worldwide downloads. Disney+ launched
in the European app stores. Mar 12.6B
Zoom crossed 140M worldwide downloads. Quibi’s mobile-only Apr 13.5B
streaming service made its first appearance in April.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons spurred Nintendo’s Pocket May 12.5B
Camp mobile game to $150M in spending. The HBO Max app
released on both stores.
Jun 11.7B
Multiple apps removed on the App Store in China due to strict
enforcement of ISBN. India banned TikTok and Chinese apps. Jul 12.3B
Aug 12.3B
Among Us gained 85M downloads in September. Oracle became
the cloud provider for TikTok amid calls for its ban in the U.S. Sep 11.7B
Genshin Impact released on both app stores and generated $60M
in spending during its first week. Oct 11.7B
Nov 11.4B
Mobile app spending surpassed a record high of $400 million on
Christmas Day. Roblox was the top app by worldwide spending. Dec 12.0B
0 5B 10B 15B
©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
COVID-19 Spurred Lasting Lift in Mobile App Spending
Worldwide monthly installs and spending across the App Store and Google Play
The 2020 holiday season drove mobile
2019 Installs Install Growth in 2020 2019 Spending Spending Growth in 2020
16B $12B spending to a new record of $10 billion in
December, while monthly downloads surpassed
14B 12 billion for the sixth time in 2020.
$10B
12B
$3B
COVID-19 boosted the year-over-year
$2B
3.0B
4.2B
2.8B 2.1B 2.3B
2.1B $3B
$3B
$2B
$2B $2B spending growth rate for monthly installs
2.0B 2.3B 2.0B $8B $2B
10B
965M
1.9B
$2B
$1B
$2B
and revenue to above 30 percent throughout
the year after March, as opposed to an
1.8B $1B
8B $6B
average of 21 percent in the beginning at the
start of year. COVID-19’s impact on downloads
6B
may be short-lived, but spending trends indicate
9.8B 9.8B
10.2B 10.0B 9.9B
$4B $8B
$8B that apps are already seeing the benefits of
9.6B 9.7B 9.4B 9.7B 9.5B $7B $7B $7B $7B
9.2B $7B
adding these new users.
$7B $7B $7B $7B
8.6B $6B
4B
$2B
2B
0 $0
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Market Overview 7
©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
Growth of Essential Apps Remains High
Monthly install growth by category compared to January 2020
Business, Health & Fitness, and Education
Business Medical Finance Entertainment Education Health & Fitness News
200% category apps saw the largest COVID-19
related boost following the outbreak of the
virus. The demand for remote work and home
workouts spiked along with downloads of
150%
related apps.
Contact-tracing and telemedicine apps
100%
continued to show high adoption growth
Business
throughout the year as COVID-19 raised
awareness for health monitoring. The British
50% Medical contact-tracing app, NHS COVID-19, was the
Finance most downloaded medical app in 2020,
Entertainment accounting for 15 million installs.
Education
0% Health & Fitness
News
Note Regarding Growth Rate
-50%
Each monthly growth rate is calculated based on the
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category downloads in January 2020.
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Market Overview 8
©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
India’s Mobile App Adoption Continues to Break Records
Monthly install growth by country compared to January 2020
India and Brazil’s mobile markets are on a
India Turkey Brazil U.K. U.S. Russia China
80% rise, achieving a year-over-year growth in
mobile adoption of 35 percent and 32
percent, respectively, in 2020. Utility and
60% Photo & Video category apps saw the most
success outside mobile games in these markets.
India +35% Y/Y
40%
While the largest markets have started to see
downloads return towards pre-pandemic
Turkey +30% Y/Y
20% numbers or below, Turkey’s installs climbed
in December. Another top growing market,
Brazil +32% Y/Y Brazil, saw 32 percent Y/Y growth.
U.K. +16% Y/Y
0% U.S. +12% Y/Y
Russia +13% Y/Y
-20%
China -1% Y/Y
Note Regarding Growth Rate
-40%
Each monthly growth rate is calculated based on the country
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downloads in January 2020.
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Market Overview 9
©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
New Apps Releases Increase by 5% on the App Store
Apps released in 2020 on App Store and Google Play by top category
Approximately 5 percent more new apps were
App Store Google Play
released on the App Store in 2020 than 2019,
Games 65K Games 225K with Games accounting for 13 percent and
Utilities 49K Education 136K Utilities accounting for 10 percent of new
Business 47K Entertainment 132K apps. Utilities and Business stood out as the top
Lifestyle 43K Music & Audio 126K growing non-gaming categories, suggesting that
Food & Drink 40K Tools 101K increased demand created a market for new
Education 39K Business 92K apps on the App Store.
Shopping 37K Food & Drink 83K
Entertainment 25K Shopping 82K The Education and Entertainment categories
24K
both saw an increase in the number of apps
Health & Fitness Books & Reference 74K
released in them on Google Play, each
Productivity 22K Lifestyle 58K
accounting for 8 percent of the new apps
Finance 15K Personalization 52K
launched. Entertainment was the second most
Social Networking 14K Productivity 51K
popular non-gaming category on Google Play by
Travel 13K Health & Fitness 49K
downloads in 2020.
Medical 10K Finance 41K
Sports 10K Total: +5% Y/Y Social 40K Total: -5% Y/Y Note Regarding New Apps
New apps include apps released in 2020 on at least one of
0 40K 80K 0 100K 200K 300K
the stores and have ranked among the top 1,500 apps by
daily downloads at least once.
Market Overview 10Mobile Gaming Trends
©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
Among Us and Hypercasual Titles Lead the Top Mobile Games by Downloads
Quarterly top games by worldwide downloads on the App Store and Google Play
Q1 2020 Q2 2020 Q3 2020 Q4 2020
1 Hunter Assassin 1 Save The Girl NEW 1 Among Us NEW 1 Among Us -
Ruby Game Studio AppLovin InnerSloth InnerSloth
2 Brain Out 2 Garena Free Fire +4 2 My Talking Tom Friends NEW
Outfit7 2 Join Clash 3D NEW
Focus Apps Garena Games Supersonic Studios
3 Woodturning 3 PUBG Mobile +2 3 Scribble Rider NEW 3 Shortcut Run NEW
Voodoo Tencent Voodoo Voodoo
4 Johnny Trigger 4 Gardenscapes +5 4 Subway Surfers +2 4 Garena Free Fire +1
SayGames Playrix Sybo Games Garena Games
5 PUBG Mobile 5 Ludo King NEW 5 Garena Free Fire -3 5 Subway Surfers -1
Tencent Gametion Garena Games Sybo Games
6 Garena Free Fire 6 Subway Surfers +2 6 Cube Surfer NEW 6 Tiles Hop NEW
Garena Games Sybo Games Voodoo Amanotes
7 Draw Climber 7 Hunter Assassin -6 7 Stack Colors NEW 7 Roblox NEW
voodoo Ruby Game Studio Voodoo Roblox
8 Subway Surfer 8 Fishdom NEW 8 Tie Dye NEW 8 My Talking Tom Friends
-6
Sybo Games Playrix Crazy Labs Outfit7
9 Gardenscapes 9 Brain Test NEW 9 Ludo King -4 9 PUBG Mobile +1
Playrix Unico Studio Gametion Tencent
10 Rescue Cut 10 Brain Out -8 10 PUBG Mobile -7 10 Acrylic Nails NEW
MarkApp Focus Apps Tencent Crazy labs
Mobile Gaming 12©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
Core Titles Including Newcomer Genshin Impact Are Driving Player Spending
Quarterly top games by worldwide gross revenue on the App Store and Google Play
Q1 2020 Q2 2020 Q3 2020 Q4 2020
1 PUBG Mobile 1 PUBG Mobile - 1 Honor of Kings +1 1 Honor of Kings -
Tencent Tencent Tencent Tencent
2 Honor of Kings 2 Honor of Kings - 2 PUBG Mobile -1 2 PUBG Mobile -
Tencent Tencent Tencent Tencent
3 Monster Strike 3 Roblox NEW 3 Pokémon GO +2 3 Genshin Impact NEW
mixi Roblox Niantic miHoYo
4 AFK Arena 4 Coin Master +6 4 Roblox -1 4 Pokémon GO -1
Lilith Games Moon Active Roblox Niantic
5 Lineage 2M 5 Pokémon Go NEW 5 Coin Master -1 5 Coin Master -
NCSOFT Niantic Moon Active Moon Active
6 Candy Crush Saga 6 Gardenscapes +1 6 Fate/Grand Order +4 6 Roblox -2
King Playrix Sony Corporation Roblox
7 Gardenscapes 7 Candy Crush Saga -1 7 Gardenscapes -1 7 Rise of Kingdoms +5
Playrix King Playrix Lilith Games
8 Rise of Kingdoms 8 Three Kingdoms Strategic
Alibaba NEW 8 Candy Crush Saga -1 8 Candy Crush Saga -
Lilith Games King King
9 Fate/Grand Order 9 Monster Strike -7 9 DBZ Dokkan Battle NEW 9 Homescapes NEW
Sony Corporation mixi Bandai Namco Playrix
10 Coin Master 10 Fate/Grand Order -1 10 Monster Strike -1 10 Moonlight Blade NEW
Moon Active Sony Corporation Mixi Tencent
Mobile Gaming 13©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
What’s Trending:
Hypercasual Game Adoption Took Off
During Stay-at-Home Orders
Could your business benefit from
Mobile games prospered during quarantine when consumers were left with more time on access to Store Intelligence insights
their hands. Hypercasual was one of the fastest growing genres of mobile games,
accumulating 10 billion installs across the top 1,000 such titles in 2020.
and the highly accurate data used
to build this report? See the fastest
Key Takeaways:
growing apps and publishers by
● Adoption of the top 1,000 Hypercasual genre games grew 45 percent Y/Y in 2020. The
continued rise in Hypercasual installs indicates that mobile games are reaching more downloads or revenue.
casual players than ever before.
● Many Hypercasual genre games were among the top growing titles in 2020.
REQUEST DEMO
Gaming Trends: Hypercasual 14©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
Hypercasual Titles Surpassed 10 Billion Installs in 2020
Global downloads of top 1,000 hypercasual games by quarter
3B
+45% Y/Y
The top 1,000 hypercasual games surpassed
2 billion quarterly downloads for four
consecutive quarters in 2020, with Q3 being
their best performing quarter so far.
Hypercasual games saw massive popularity
2B +70% Y/Y
during stay-at-home orders and saw year-over-
year growth of 45 percent in 3Q20.
2.7B
2.6B 2.7B
2.5B
Although Hypercasual games saw a decrease
in adoption in Q4 2020, the genre is set to
1B
1.9B 2.0B have a good year in 2021 if ad tracking
1.7B related headwinds are diminished. Demand
for Hypercasual games is remaining strong, with
1.1B 1.1B 1.1B
the top 10 titles accumulating 80 millions
857M
627M
installs in the first two weeks of 2021.
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Gaming Trends: Hypercasual 15©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
Consumers Flock to Simple Games Amid Quarantine
Top growing games by year-over-year increase in downloads for 2020
Hypercasual Games
Among Us 282M Hypercasual games dominated the top
growing games chart, accounting for five out
Hunter Assassin 207M
of the top 10 fastest growing games. Join
Brain Out 182M Clash 3D, released in March 2020, ranked as the
second most downloaded game in Q4 2020,
Join Clash 3D 156M
competing with the viral multi-player title
Save The Girl 153M
Among Us.
Brain Test 149M Amid the stress brought by COVID-19, mobile
My Talking
gaming attracted a significant number of
149M first-time players in 2020. These consumers
Tom Friends
flocked to titles that encourage social
Worms Zone 132M
interaction with friends or friend-like NPCs, such
as Among Us and My Talking Tom Friends, or
Woodturning 126M
simple, easy-to-play titles that require minimal
Cube Surfer 106M
commitment from players.
0 50M 100M 150M 200M 250M 300M
Gaming Trends: Hypercasual 16©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
Hypercasual Growth Rises Above Other Genres
Install growth among the top Hypercasual, Arcade, and Puzzle genre games vs. Q1 2019
Top 100 Top 100 Top 100 Top 100
400% Hypercasual Puzzle Arcade Games
Hypercasual is far-and-away the fastest
350% growing genre in mobile gaming. The top 100
Hypercasual games saw growth of 350 percent
300% Hypercasual
over Q1 2019 downloads in Q2 and Q3 2020
6.0B total installs
in 2020
while mobile games overall saw maximum
250% growth of 133 percent in 2Q20.
200% The continued rise in adoption of
Hypercasual genre games on mobile reaffirms
the existence of a large market and strong
150%
Puzzle demand for simpler titles. While these games
3.7B total installs
in 2020
monetize quite different from other genres—
100% using in-game advertising—the fact that mid-
Games
10.4B total installs core games have the potential to attract more
50%
in 2020
users by adding modes aimed at beginning
Arcade
4.7B total installs
players shouldn’t be overlooked.
in 2020
0%
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Gaming Trends: Hypercasual 17©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
What’s Trending:
Mobile Games Are Finding Success with
In-App Subscription Models
Could your business benefit from
Subscription-based monetization is becoming more pervasive among mobile games as a access to Store Intelligence insights
growing number of titles have found success with in-app subscriptions for optimizing
revenue streams and retention rates.
and the highly accurate data used
to build this report? See the fastest
Key Takeaways:
growing apps and publishers by
● Eight out of the top 15 grossing mobile games in 2020 have adopted in-app subscriptions
as a monetization model. downloads or revenue.
● Casino and Strategy have seen the highest proportions of subscription games, accounting
for 39 percent and 35 percent among their top apps, respectively.
● Subscription-based games saw higher long-term retention rates than non-subscription REQUEST DEMO
games in 2020.
Gaming Trends: Subscription Games 18©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
Subscriptions Are Common Among Top Grossing Games
Top games by adoption and spending across the App Store and Google Play in 2020
Top Downloaded Mobile Games in 2020 Top Grossing Mobile Games in 2020
Among Us 282M PUBG Mobile $2.7B
Multiple successful mobile games have now
Garena Free Fire 276M Honor of Kings $2.6B
adopted in-app subscription models. Roblox
Subway Surfers 245M Pokémon GO 1.3B was one of the pioneers of implementing a
PUBG Mobile 240M Coin Master 1.2B subscription model, called Builders Club (now
Hunter Assassin 207M Roblox $1.2B Premium), into its mobile game. Newer titles,
Gardenscapes 205M Monster Strike $1B such as Hunter Assassin, launched with
Brain Out 182M Candy Crush Saga 978M subscriptions from day one.
Ludo King 182M Rise of Kingdoms $966M
Tiles Hop 170M Gardenscapes 959M In-app subscriptions have the potential to boost
Homescapes 160M Fate/Grand Order 929M revenue for top games. Rise of Kingdoms, for
instance, saw a 13 percent increase in user
Roblox 160M Homescapes 829M
Three
Three Kingdoms spending one month after the release of its
Candy Crush Saga 158M Kingdoms Strategic
Strategic
$776M
monthly subscription package.
Join Clash 3D 156M Lineage M 761M
My Talking Tom 2 153M AFK Arena $758M
Save The Girl 153M Garena Free Fire $736M Contains Subscriptions
0 50M 100M 150M 200M 250M 300M $0 $1B $2B $3B
Gaming Trends: Subscription Games 19©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
Core Games Are More Likely to Adopt Subscriptions
Proportion of games with in-app subscriptions by genre
Contains In-App Subscription No In-App Subscriptions
Approximately 39 percent of top Casino
games utilize in-app subscriptions, followed
26%
39%
35% 33% by Strategy (35 percent) and RPG (33
Casino Strategy RPG Sports percent). Complex titles with heavy user
61%
65% 67% engagement appear to have found success using
74%
in-app subscriptions to boost revenue along
with user retention.
Designing a subscription product and rewards
based on demographics, genre, and gameplay
24% 22% 22% 21% features, in addition to accurately tailoring them
to player needs, is essential to achieving the
Racing Arcade Lifestyle Shooter best possible ARPU.
76% 78% 78% 79%
Note Regarding Game Population
Proportion calculations utilized thousands of games in our
Game Taxonomy, while comparing subscription games to
non-subscription games by genre
Gaming Trends: Subscription Games 20©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
Games with Subscriptions See Higher Longterm Retention
Day 7, 30, and 90 retention rates of the top 1,000 subscription and non-subscription games
— Subscription Games — Non-subscription Games
16%
Although the gap wasn’t large, subscription-
Day 7 based games saw consistently higher
Retention
retention rates than non-subscription games.
12% The difference was most obvious in Q2 2020
amid COVID-19, when non-subscription games
saw a day 7 retention of 13 percent while
subscription-based games saw a higher
8% retention of 13.7 percent.
Day 30 Collect player feedback on subscription
Retention products using App Intelligence’s Review
Analysis feature, which derives insights from
4%
user experience so you can make data-driven
Day 90
decisions on product improvements.
Retention
0%
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Gaming Trends: Subscription Games 21Mobile App Trends
©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
Social and Communication-Focused Apps Dominated Q4’s Top 10 by Downloads
Quarterly top apps by worldwide downloads on the App Store and Google Play
Q1 2020 Q2 2020 Q3 2020 Q4 2020
1 TikTok 1 ZOOM +4 1 TikTok +1 1 TikTok -
Bytedance Zoom Bytedance Bytedance
2 WhatsApp 2 TikTok -2 2 Facebook +2 2 WhatsApp +2
Facebook Bytedance Facebook Facebook
3 Facebook 3 Facebook - 3 ZOOM -2 3 Facebook -1
Facebook Facebook Zoom Facebook
4 Instagram 4 WhatsApp -3 4 WhatsApp - 4 Instagram +1
Instagram Facebook Facebook Facebook
5 ZOOM 5 Messenger NEW 5 Instagram +1 5 ZOOM -2
Zoom Facebook Facebook Zoom
6 Likee 6 Instagram -2 6 Google Meet +2 6 Messenger +1
LIKEME Facebook Google Facebook
7 SHAREit 7 Aarogya Setu NEW 7 Messenger -2 7 Snapchat +3
SHAREit NIC Facebook Snap
8 Snapchat 8 Google Meet NEW 8 SnackVideo NEW 8 Telegram +1
Snap Google Joyo Technology Outfit7
9 Netflix 9 Telegram NEW 9 Telegram - 9 Google Meet -3
Netflix Telegram Telegram Google
10 Youtube 10 Youtube - 10 Snapchat NEW 10 SnackVideo -2
Google Google Snap Joyo Technology
Mobile Apps 23©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
Few Newcomers Shook Up the Global Revenue Charts in 2020
Quarterly top apps by worldwide gross revenue on the App Store and Google Play
Q1 2020 Q2 2020 Q3 2020 Q4 2020
1 Tinder 1 TikTok +3 1 TikTok - 1 TikTok -
Match Group Bytedance Bytedance Bytedance
2 YouTube 2 YouTube - 2 YouTube - 2 YouTube -
Google Google Google Google
3 TikTok 3 Tinder -1 3 Tinder - 3 Tinder -
Bytedance Match Group Match Group Match Group
4 Netflix 4 Tencent Video +2 4 Tencent Video - 4 Disney+ +1
Netflix Tencent Tencent Disney
5 iQIYI 5 Disney+ +2 5 Disney+ - 5 Tencent Video -1
iQIYI Disney Disney Tencent
6 Tencent Video 6 iQIYI -1 6 iQIYI - 6 Piccoma +1
Tencent iQIYI iQIYI Kakao Corp.
7 Disney+ 7 Netflix -3 7 Piccoma NEW 7 iQIYI -1
Disney Netflix Kakao Corp. iQIYI
8 Google One 8 BIGO LIVE NEW 8 Netflix -1 8 Google One +2
Google YY Inc. Netflix Google
9 Pandora 9 LINE Manga NEW 9 BIGO LIVE -1 9 BIGO LIVE -
Pandora Naver Corp YY Inc. YY Inc.
10 LINE 10 Google One -2 10 Google One - 10 Netflix -2
NAVER Corp Google Google Netflix
Mobile Apps 24©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
What’s Trending:
Fintech Reaches New Highs on Mobile,
Led by Payment and Stock Trading
Could your business benefit from
Fintech has been rapidly gaining popularity on mobile, and this was even more evident in access to Store Intelligence insights
2020 when interest in the stock market and cryptocurrency were driven by a worldwide
recession. In the mobile space, fintech apps responded to dynamic financial markets with a
and the highly accurate data used
surge in app adoption. to build this report? See the fastest
growing apps and publishers by
Key Takeaways:
● Finance apps accumulated nearly 5 billion downloads worldwide in 2020 at a growth rate downloads or revenue.
of 25 percent year-over-year
● Trading and cryptocurrency apps are among the fastest growing finance sectors in
mobile, with IQ Option seeing the most downloads and growth in 2020. REQUEST DEMO
● Payment apps have been on a safe and steady rise, while B2B became the next step for
many top payment titles.
App Trends: Fintech 25©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
Finance Apps Are Experiencing Steady Growth Over Time
Worldwide download growth of finance apps by quarter
1.5B
Worldwide finance app installs have been on
+19% Y/Y
a rise, growing at a rate of 19 percent year-
over-year in Q4 2020. Finance apps saw steady
+23% Y/Y growth during the study period, achieving a
compound annual growth rate of 22 percent.
1.0B
+21% Y/Y Among the top finance apps in 2020, payment
apps dominated the download charts, with
Google Pay and PayPal ranking No. 1 and No.
1.3B 1.3B 2 in the category.
1.2B
1.1B
1.1B
500M 1.0B
896M 923M Download trends of finance apps further
879M
750M 747M
808M confirm the ongoing expansion of the global
fintech market. Payment apps are currently
leading the adoption for this mobile sector.
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App Trends: Fintech 26©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
Cryptocurrency Apps Took Off Amid COVID-19
Install growth of payment, trading, banking, and cryptocurrency apps
Cryptocurrency Payment Top 100 Finance Apps Trading Banking
250%
Cryptocurrency app download growth spiked
following the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020.
200%
Cryptocurrency Cryptocurrency apps saw high adoption growth
of more than 200 percent in August compared to
January, corresponding with record
150%
cryptocurrency trading volumes.
100% The rest of the Finance space also saw a boost
following COVID-19. Interestingly, that growth
Payment was short lived for mobile banking apps as
50% Finance downloads returned to pre-pandemic levels
Trading
after a brief spike in March and April.
0% Banking
Note Regarding Growth Rate
-50%
Each subcategory growth rate is calculated based on the
20
0
0
0
0
20
0
0
0
0
0
20
monthly downloads compared to January 2020. Downloads
-2
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No
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Ja
Ju
Fe
Se
M
M
are from the top 100 apps of Finance and Finance
subcategories in 2020 by raw growth over 2019.
App Trends: Fintech 27©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
Payment Apps Are Trending Up, B2B In Particular
Top growing payment apps by worldwide download growth
2019 2020
134M
PayPal and PhonePe were the top growing
149M +11%
Google Pay
payment apps by Y/Y growth, accounting for
51M
40 million and 23 million in raw download
91M +78%
PayPal
growth, respectively. The two apps achieved
61M
this success in different ways: PayPal had at
84M +38%
PhonePe
least 2 million downloads in 10 different
27M
countries in 2020, while 99 percent of PhonePe’s
39M +45%
Cash App
installs were from India.
20M
36M +83%
Mercado Pago
Google Pay for Business, a business-to-business
10M
payment app, stood out for its high yearly
28M +188%
PicPay
growth percentage of 162 percent. Top
8M
payment apps, such as Google Pay and
Google Pay
Business
20M +162%
B2B PhonePe, have also seen major growth for
8M
their B2B versions.
18M +137%
PagBank
0 40M 80M 120M 160M
App Trends: Fintech 28©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
Trading and Crypto App Installs Rise as Markets Rebound
Top growing trading and cryptocurrency apps by worldwide download growth
2019 2020
11M
IQ Option was the top growing trading app in
31M +170%
IQ Option
2020, with a total of 31 million downloads
7M
accumulated and year-over-year growth of
13M +81%
Expert Option
170 percent. The demand for trading apps
6M
surged in response to rebounding of stock and
13M +114%
Robinhood
cryptocurrency markets later in the pandemic.
4M
Investing.com
12M +45% +214%
Top growing trading apps such as Upstox Pro
1M
and OctaFX Trading found most of their success
6M +496%
Upstox Pro
in just a few key markets like India, Indonesia,
1M648K
and Pakistan. Cryptocurrency apps including
6M +778%
OctaFX Trading
Crypto.com and Trust saw their installs more
1M
evenly distributed across many countries.
Crypto.com 5M +355%
1M505K
5M +817%
Trust
$5M $10M $15M $20M $25M $30M $35M
App Trends: Fintech 29©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
What’s Trending:
Smart Home Apps Soar Amid Stay-at-
Home Orders and 5G Growth
Could your business benefit from
With the faster speeds and greater bandwidth they offer, 5G networks are expected to host access to Store Intelligence insights
more smart devices than before, including smart home hardware. Smart home app adoption
saw notable growth amid COVID-19, when consumers spent more time in their homes and on
and the highly accurate data used
their mobile devices than ever before. to build this report? See the fastest
growing apps and publishers by
Key Takeaways:
● The top 10 smart home apps accumulated 151 million worldwide installs in 2020. downloads or revenue.
● COVID-19 created a boost in smart home app adoption that was seen outside of the
holiday season in 2020.
● Google Play saw major growth in adoption for smart home apps in countries including REQUEST DEMO
India, Brazil, and Mexico, where installs doubled year-over-year.
App Trends: Smart Home 30©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
Google Home Blazes the Path for Smart Home Apps
Worldwide downloads of top smart home apps in 2020
Google Home 60M Google Home was the most downloaded
smart home app in 2020, accounting for 60
Amazon Alexa 36M
million installs globally. Amazon Alexa was
Mi Home 20M No. 2 on the chart with 36 million downloads.
The top 10 smart home apps overall
LG ThinQ 11M
accumulated 151 million downloads across the
Smart Life 7M
App Store and Google Play.
Yoosee 5M COVID-19 has accelerated the growth of smart
home apps. With more time spent at home,
iRobot Home 4M consumers are investing in technology to make
their home-centric lifestyles more convenient
Xiao Du 3M
and efficient.
Wyze 3M
realme Link 2M
10M 20M 30M 40M 50M 60M 70M
App Trends: Smart Home 31©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
Smart Home Apps See Greatest Growth on Android
Downloads of smart home apps on Google Play by country
2019 2020
16M
Google Play has seen a major increase in
+13%
+128%
14M adoption of smart home apps worldwide.
India, Brazil, and Mexico saw the most raw
12M growth year-over-year, with more than double
the downloads in 2020 than 2019 in each of
10M these markets.
+117%
8M Smart home companies looking to expand into
14.3M
13.9M
new markets can track app adoption to identify
12.6M which ones show the highest growth potential.
6M
LG ThinQ provided a great example of this: After
8.5M +54% +106%
observing the expansion of Google Home and
4M +28% Amazon Alexa in Mexico, it localized its app for
6.1M that market in June 2020 and saw its downloads
2M 3.9M
3.5M
4M 4M +61%
+75%
+230%
spike in the second half of 2020.
2.7M 2.6M
2M 1.8M
1.5M 412K 1.4M
1M 1M
0.4M
0
U.S. India Brazil Germany Spain Mexico Japan Russia Turkey
App Trends: Smart Home 32©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
What’s Trending:
Growth of Mobile Hangout Apps Is
Accelerating
Could your business benefit from
COVID-19 created a surprise shift in the social app space in 2020—the influx of younger users access to Store Intelligence insights
looking for ways to find friends and socialize in the time of school closures and stay-at-home
orders. Apps that marketed themselves to this younger audience saw a rapid increase in first-
and the highly accurate data used
time installs in early 2020. to build this report? See the fastest
growing apps and publishers by
Key Takeaways:
● The average age for users of top social apps dipped during the first three quarters of 2020. downloads or revenue.
The pandemic increased demand for social apps among a younger user base.
● Top emerging social apps in 2020 like Wink, Yubo, and Hoop marketed themselves as ways
to make new friends. While the features of these apps varied, they each promised a way to REQUEST DEMO
find and connect with friends during COVID-19 which was appealing to younger users.
● As age trends reverted towards pre-pandemic levels in Q4 2020, adoption for many of
these friend finding apps also declined. Retaining these new users will be the challenge as
schools begin to re-open in 2021.
App Trends: Mobile Hangouts 33©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
Younger Users Embraced Social Apps Amid COVID-19
Quarterly average age and U.S. downloads for the top 100 social apps
Average Age Downloads As downloads spiked during the COVID-19
32 250M
pandemic in 2020, the average age among the
top social apps dipped, suggesting that
31.3
31.1 31.2 younger users drove a significant portion of
31.0 31.1
31 30.9 200M the growth. Age trends reverted towards pre-
30.8
30.6 COVID-19 levels by Q4 2020.
30.4
30 150M Younger users flocked to mobile social apps in
amid school closures and social distancing
Average Age
Downloads
29.6
29.4 29.4 orders. Social apps will increasingly market
themselves towards a younger age group to
29 100M engage with a relatively untapped user base.
28 50M
Note Regarding Download and Age Estimates
Population of apps includes the top 100 apps by U.S. downloads each
27 0 quarter across the App Store and Google Play. Apps include any with
Social Networking as their primary App Store category or Social as their
8
8
8
8
9
9
9
9
0
0
0
0
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
2
Google Play category. Average age is among the same top 100 apps, and
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
is App Store only.
App Trends: Mobile Hangouts 34©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
Apps with Younger Users are Growing Fastest
Growth in median U.S. installs by average age cohort among the top 100 social apps in 2020
Top Apps by Y/Y Download Growth Apps popular among younger users saw their
2019 2020
#1 #2 #3 median downloads nearly double Y/Y in 2020,
0-20% 1.0M while the median downloads for apps with
Wink Yubo Hoop
(Avg. Age average age above 30 decreased. Top apps by
22.5-26.9) 1.9M +90%
download growth among the youngest user
20-40% 1.7M cohort included apps for finding friends and
Zynn Rave Airtime
(Avg. Age socializing in-app.
26.9-28.6) 2.9M +71%
4.4M
In 2020, the highest growth apps among older
40-60%
(Avg. Age TikTok Discord Houseparty users were mostly well-established at the top
28.6-29.9) 7.0M +59% of the category. Younger users provided
opportunities for newly emerging apps.
60-80% 3.0M
(Avg. Age Facebook Pinterest Hangouts
30.1-32.2) 2.9M -3%
80-100% 2.4M
(Avg. Age Parler Google Duo Messenger Kids Note Regarding Download and Age Estimates
32.5+) 2.2M -8% Population of apps includes the top 100 apps by U.S. downloads each
quarter across the App Store and Google Play. Apps include any with
0 1M 2M 3M 4M 5M 6M 7M 8M Social Networking as their primary App Store category or Social as their
Google Play category. Average age is among the same top 100 apps, and
is App Store only.
App Trends: Mobile Hangouts 35©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
Top New Apps Focus on Socializing and Finding Friends
Top social apps by Y/Y U.S. download growth among those with < 3M U.S. installs in 2019
Zynn .
Many of the top emerging social apps in 2020
Parler .
are meant for making new friends, including
byte . Wink, Yubo, and Hoop. Other top apps by year-
Wink . over-year growth were for watching TV or
Yubo . playing games together over a video call.
IRL .
Hoop . Top growing social apps like Wink, Yubo, and
Bunch . Hoop had similar features to other social or
Rave . dating apps, but were simply marketed for
Threads from Instagram . finding friends or socializing remotely during
Official Trump 2020 . COVID-19. Adapting quickly to demographic
Itsme .
trends can give an app an advantage in such a
Airtime .
competitive and ever-changing space.
Tiya .
GoLocator .
Omegle .
Litstick . Make New Friends
Watch TV / Play Games Together
Hippo .
Other
Yee .
Playsee .
0 1M 2M 3M 4M 5M 6M 7M 8M 9M 10M
App Trends: Mobile Hangouts 36©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
Yubo Pulled Away from Its Competitors in Late 2020
Monthly U.S. downloads for friend finding and group video apps
Apps for playing games or watching TV with
1.4M
friends saw large download surges in the first
Yubo Bunch Hoop Wink Rave Airtime
half of 2020, including Bunch, Rave, and Airtime.
1.2M With Yubo as a notable exception, downloads
for each app fell back between 100 and 250K
1.0M in December 2020.
Yubo set itself apart from other top emerging
800K
social apps by maintaining higher monthly
installs through the end of 2020. This
600K demonstrated the benefit of having a larger
Yubo existing presence prior to 2020 compared to
its competitors, as well as consistent
400K advertising on ad networks like TikTok.
Bunch
Hoop
200K Wink
Rave
Airtime
0% 1%
0
20
0
0
0
0
20
0
0
0
0
0
20
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M
App Trends: Mobile Hangouts 37©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
Staying Power Is a Challenge for Emerging Social Apps
Top friend finding and group video apps by peak quarter relative to Q4 downloads in 2020
Nearly all of the top emerging social apps saw
3M Q1 Downloads Q2 Downloads Q4 Downloads Q4 as % of Peak
their downloads peak in the first half of 2020.
Very few were able to sustain this level of
success into Q4. Yubo was the only top friend
finding / group video app to reach even two-
Q2
Q1 thirds of its download peak in Q4.
2M Q2
Peak Quarter Installs
Q4 Many social apps were able to attract over 1
million new users in 2020. Retaining this young
Q2 user base will be the challenge throughout 2021
Q2 Q1
67% Q2 as the world begins to re-open.
Q2
Q2
1M
51%
Q2
24% 47% 56%
35%
16%
51%
0% 1%
0
Airtime Hoop Yubo Tiya Omegle Bunch Wink Yee Rave Itsme- Hippo
App Trends: Mobile Hangouts 38©2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved
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