Mobile apps see download, in-app purchase, user growth globally, says App Annie

There were 204 billion mobile app downloads in 2019 and consumers spent $120 billion at app stores, according to App Annie's State of Mobile report.

App Annie's annual report on mobile metrics highlights how usage time (3.7 hours a day on average) and consumer and mobile ad spending of $380 billion globally have combined to create a booming app economy.

Overall, annual app downloads globally have grown 45% over the last three years and 6% from a year ago.

Other notable findings include:

• In-app subscriptions contributed 96% of spend in top non-gaming apps in 2019. On Google Play, 79% of the top 250 apps monetized via in-app subscriptions. On iOS, the rate was 94%.
• There were 106 million downloads of the top Internet of things apps in 2019 in the US.
• Mobile gaming is on track to top $100 billion across all mobile app stores in 2020.
• Consumers accessed finance apps more than a 1 trillion times globally in 2019.
• Global shopping app downloads were up 20% in 2019 to more than 5.4 billion.
• 50% of time spent on mobile is devoted to social networking and communication.
• Time spent on TikTok in 2019 topped 68 billion.
• Consumers spent $1.4 billion in health and fitness apps in 2019.