Data.ai: Consumers will spend $129B on in-app purchases in 2022

A report from the end of 2022 data.ai Consumer spending on in-app purchases and consumables is expected to reach $129 billion. This marks a slight contraction in the market, down 2% from $131 billion in 2021.

This slight decline was expected given the downward economic pressure on the market. Another factor driving the change is reduced COVID-19 restrictions. Consumers are spending more of their disposable income on experiences than they have since 2020.

iOS and Android

Apple’s App Store continues to drive more spending than Google Play. In-app spending on iOS is expected to total $83 billion, while Android will account for the remaining $46 billion.

Both Apple’s App Store and Google Play are feeling the market cooling. The annual volume declines for both platforms were about the same. That means Apple will still account for about 65 cents of every dollar spent on mobile apps this year.

Gaming still accounts for the majority of spending on both platforms, especially on Android.

While spending has slowed, the number of first-time app installs continues to grow each year. Data.ai expects 151 billion downloads in 2022, an increase of 9%, compared to 140 billion downloads and 8% growth in 2021. That translates to 11 billion more app downloads this year.

Android devices are driving this growth. New downloads on Google Play rose 12 percent to approximately 117 billion. In contrast, downloads on iOS were roughly flat, rising 1% year-over-year to nearly 34 billion.

While iOS has stagnated in downloads, Android users in emerging markets are driving download growth. These users account for 73% of global app downloads. However, this group accounted for 28% of spending. While Alphabet may not be feeling the benefits yet, this user acquisition could indeed pay dividends down the road.

Data.ai’s breakthrough game

While we haven’t seen many surprises from Data.ai’s top-performing titles of 2022, mobile versions of popular PC and console titles continue to perform well. Diablo: Immortal and League of Legends: Wild Rift managed to break into the top 10 for global consumer spending. Meanwhile, EA’s Apex Legends mobile version ranks sixth in monthly active users.

It is worth noting that the Chinese localization of top games performed better than their original versions. Game for Peace is based on Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds and Battle of Golden Spatula is a localized version of Teamfight Tactics.

Data.ai’s full report, including data for non-gaming applications, is free now.