Spending on mobile gaming grows by nearly 8% for the third quarter of 2021

The volume of app installs (games included) on the App Store and Play Store worldwide has dropped slightly in 3Q2021, down 1.2% and 2.1% respectively compared to 3Q2020, or 1.9% overall. This, however, did not stop the actual amount of money taken in by all apps from growing to US$33.6 billion for the quarter, for a 13.2% and 18.6% growth on the Apple- and Google-run mobile platforms respectively.

TikTok (its Chinese version Douyin included) saw a 41% YoY growth in terms of this revenue (derived from sources such as app purchases, in-app purchases and recurring payments) to stay top of the overall mobile apps chart, although it dropped to #4 on the Google Play Store for the quarter. Piccoma (more or less Crunchyroll for manga) jumped to #2 overall with a 130% annual growth, followed by YouTube, despite the fact it was missing from the entire top 10 for the Play Store.

When corrected for games, app revenue for the quarter was $22.4 billion, rising by 7.7% YoY across both major stores. Slightly unsurprisingly, PUBG Mobile (its Chinese-market counterpart Game for Peace included) retained its top spot, having passed its first US$5 billion in takings in 1Q2021. It was followed by Honor of Kings (also from Tencent) and Genshin Impact.

That flagship miHoYo title is the breakaway success of the year, having only debuted in 3Q2020. Since then, it has accrued no less than US$2 billion in terms of revenue, and occupied the #3 spot on the App Store and #1 on the Play Store for the latest completed quarter. Oddly,  it was nowhere to be found in the top 10 for downloads in 3Q2021, suggesting that pretty much everyone who plays it has their install already.

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