A new report details the time (and money) spent on apps in 2020 so far

A new report on mobile app usage may indicate the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting need to self-isolate. The research pertains to 1Q2020, and shows that the amounts of time and money spent on apps increased for this quarter compared to 1Q2019. This was true for the 2 top platforms in question (the Google Play Store and Apple's App Store).

For example, the average amount of time spent on Play Store apps per week increased by 20% YoY. Chinese users reportedly spent 5 hours per day with apps, or a YoY increase of 30%. App-use time also increased by 15% in France and 10% in both Germany and the US. Again, this change was thought to be related to quarantine measures: app-use times increased by 30% YoY in China, and by the same amount in Italy for March 2020 compared to all of 4Q2019 combined.

Of these apps, games accounted for 45% and 35% of all 1Q2020 downloads on the Play Store and the App Store respectively. Users were found to have spent over US$16.7 billion on that category, or 65% of all App Store revenue and an impressive 85% of the same on the Play Store.

The total app revenues also grew 5% on both the App Store and Play Store for 1Q2020. The authors of this new report project that these figures have the potential to exhibit even more gains in the next quarter as the pandemic wears on.