Are we becoming more dependent on mobile phones? According to State of Mobile Report published by a mobile app data and analytics platform App Annie, that might be the case.
In 2021, Indians spent a staggering 4.8 hours a day on mobile phones. The data was collated by considering the statistics from the top 10 mobile markets worldwide. The users spent 3.8 trillion hours on various mobile devices last year. Considering the statistics in India, mobile phone users spent nearly an average of 4.7 hours on mobile daily in 2021. In 2019, this was 3.7 hours per day, and in 2020, the data was 4.5 hours per day. We can easily attribute the increase of screen time in 2020 and 2021 to the pandemic when most people were constraint to their homes. Some nations such as Brazil, South Korea and Indonesia reported more than 5 hours per day on mobile apps last year.
India ranks second in terms of app downloads
The publishers worldwide released 2 million new apps and games in 2021, taking the total count of apps and games released on iOS and Google Play Store to over 21 million. Google Play Store accounts for 77% of the apps and game released in 2021. Across both platforms, games accounted for 15% of all new releases. 230 billion new app downloads were recorded in terms of downloads, which is a 5% y-o-y increase. Further bifurcation reveals that more than 4,35,000 apps were downloaded per minute in 2021. India ranked second in terms of hours spent on mobile and app downloads.
When the gameplay of payments shifted to e-wallets, over $320,000 were spent on app stores every minute in 2021. That’s nearly a 20% increase from 2020. The total app store spending for 2021 was estimated at $170 billion. Mobile gaming grew to $116 billion, with a preference for hyper-casual games such as ‘Bridge Race’ and ‘Hair Challenge’. 2021 also saw some exciting gaming titles such as ‘Pokémon Unite’ and ‘PUBG: New State’ making gains in downloads and usage. Mobile shopping naturally increased in the pandemic, which reached 100 billion hours in 2021, up by 18% y-o-y.
People did not miss out the dating apps in 2021! The consumer spending on dating apps crossed $4.2 billion in 2021, a 55% increase from 2019. Major markets that recorded high on dating apps include the US, Japan, the UK and China. India saw declining consumer spending on dating apps, but it is still 18% higher when compared to 2018.
