App Store and Play Store spending shows a meager 1% hike in 2022’s first half

Here’s an interesting statistic to chew on now that we’ve crossed over the line that separates the first half of the year from the second half. According to SafeBettingSites.com, revenue from app purchases in the Google Play Store declined by 7.4% globally on a year-over-year basis during the first half of 2022. Android users spent a total of $21.3 billion on apps during the first half of this year compared to the $23 billion spent during the first half of 2021.

While Android users didn’t hold up their end so far in 2022, overall spending on apps, which includes iOS users making purchases in the Apple App Store, came to approximately $65 billion during the first half of 2022. Considering that the first half of 2021 saw combined revenue of $64.4 billion, the year-over-year increase for the Play Store and App Store combined was roughly a meager 1%.

Spending in the App Store has slowed down but has not dropped as we’ve seen with the Google Play Store. The latter’s decline in revenue might be related to a post-pandemic effect with users no longer spending as much time using their handsets. For example, the year-over-year increase in Play Store revenue was 30% during the first half of 2021 when fear of COVID was still widespread.

App Store revenue grew only 22.1% during that same time period indicating that the Play Store had benefited more from the pandemic than the App Store. This explains why the Android app marketplace has seen a larger spending decline during the post-pandemic period. The report says that spending on apps in Apple’s app marketplace made up 67.2% of total spending on apps during the first half of this year.