Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Mobile user spending continued to rise steadily in Q3 2023, up 3.7% year-on-year. Downloads declined slightly over the same period.

In the third quarter of 2023, the mobile app market returned to strong growth, and after experiencing an unprecedented decline in 2022, the mobile economy began to maintain steady growth. User spending remained positive year-on-year for the fourth consecutive quarter. In the first three quarters of 2023, user spending exceeded $33 billion.

How strong will the mobile market be in 2023? The latest figures for the third quarter tell us the answer.

After experiencing a slowdown in 2022, the mobile market seems to be back on track. In fact, annual user spending on iOS and Google Play grew at an unprecedented rate in 2023, reaching $100 billion. In the third quarter of 2023, total global user spending on iOS and Google Play platforms was $33.6 billion, up 3.7% year-over-year and roughly the same as in the first two quarters of 2023. This marks the first time that annual user spending has exceeded the $100 billion mark in the third quarter-in 2021 and 2022, user spending will not exceed $100 billion until October, and in 2020 it will not reach the end of December (2020 is also the first year that annual user spending has exceeded $100 billion).

In the third quarter of 2023, Apple App Store and Google Play both achieved positive year-on-year growth. iOS user spending climbed 1 percent year-over-year, compared with 9.7 percent for Google Play. In Q3 2023, iOS continued to contribute $21.2 billion, accounting for the majority of user spending, while Google Play user spending was $12.4 billion.

Most of the growth in Q3 2023 came from apps other than games, with iOS and Google Play user spending growing 10.6% and 20% year-over-year, respectively. Mobile game user spending grew more modestly on Google Play at 5%, while mobile game spending on iOS fell 5.6%. This continues the trend of growing out-of-game mobile spending driven by in-app subscriptions.

Over the past year, the United States led the world's fastest-growing market, with user spending growing by more than $600 million year-on-year in the third quarter of 2023. In the third quarter, the United States accounted for nearly a third of global user spending. South Korea and the United Kingdom also maintained strong growth, reaching $477 million and $224 million respectively.

App downloads stabilized at 38.4 billion in Q3 2023

Over the past year, global app downloads have been remarkably stable, topping 38 billion for the fifth consecutive quarter. In the third quarter of 2023, user downloads reached 38.4 billion times, down slightly year-on-year. Overall downloads in the first three quarters of 2023 reached 115.2 billion times, up 1.9% year-on-year.

Google Play received 28.9 billion downloads in Q3 2023, more than three times the 9.5 billion downloads for iOS. iOS, however, grew faster year-over-year at 9.2%, while Google Play fell 3.7% year-over-year.

The slowdown in Google Play app downloads was mainly driven by a 13% drop in India-Google Play downloads in the rest of the world grew 1.5% year-over-year.

The fastest growing markets in Q3 2023 compared to last year were China, the US and Bangladesh. China has returned to positive growth in recent quarters, with iOS downloads approaching pre-epidemic levels. iOS downloads alone increased by 173 million times in Q3 2023 compared to Q3 2022. Over the same period, downloads in the U.S. increased by 126 million, while downloads in Bangladesh rose nearly 86 million year-over-year.

Hot list: Thread releases a new record for downloads, replacing TikTok as the most downloaded app

Threads, a new microblogging app launched by Meta in early July, saw downloads soar to 15 million in its first week-5.5 times faster than any other app that reached that level. This also puts the app firmly at the top of downloads in Q3 2023. Meta had four of the top five downloads in the quarter. TikTok, ranked first in the first two quarters of 2023, retreated to second place.

TikTok continues to lead user spending charts, followed by YouTube and Tinder. Monthly active users (MAU) remained unchanged from the previous quarter, with social media giants still dominating.

Top Games List: Which mobile games performed well in Q3?

Royal Match, a triple-elimination fusion game created by Dream Games, was the biggest winner in the third quarter and topped the bestseller list for the first time. The game surpassed long-time chart winners such as Honor of Kings and Candy Crush Saga, rising five places from Q2. King Glory previously ranked first in user spending between the second quarter of 2022 and the second quarter of 2023.

Monopoly GO, created by Scopely, was another growth breakout game in Q3, locking in at No. 5 in revenue and No. 7 in downloads. It continues to show strong momentum alongside other games such as Pokémon GO that leverage IP influence.

Downloads and MAU rankings are not much different from Q2 2023. Free Fire, Subway Surfers and ROBLOX dominate the top three downloads, while ROBLOX, Free Fire and Candy Crush Saga remain the top three games with the highest MAU.

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