Consumer spending on apps and subscriptions continues to grow year-on-year, claims a new report from Sensor Tower. Users across Android and iOS spent over $13 billion on subscriptions-based apps, out of which iOS users contributed to about $10.3 billion of revenue.

Consumer spending on top 100 non-game subscription-based apps grew from $9.7 billion in 2019 to $13 billion in 2020, which is about a 34% year-on-year increase. App Store continues to dominate Google Play in terms of app revenue. Google Play, though it had a jump of 42% year-on-year, it grew only from $1.9 billion to $2.7 billion. Apple App Store, on the other hand, had a huge jump from $7.8 billion to $10.3 billion. The report cites:

“Consumers have historically spent more on the ‌App Store‌ than on Google’s marketplace, and the same holds true for subscription apps.”

Half of this revenue was generated by the United States. Consumers in the United States spent nearly $4.5 billion on the top 100 apps (non-game) that offer subscriptions. This is a growth of 25%, up from approximately $3.6 billion in 2019.

Google was the big winner here. Out of the top ten subscription apps, Google had two apps generating revenue for it. YouTube led the overall revenue leaderboard generating $991.7 million in revenue globally, and $562 million in the United States. Surprisingly, only one Google app, Google One, was present on Android’s revenue share leaderboard. Google One, across Android and iOS, generated about $445 million globally, and $255.7 million in the United States.

Revenue from subscription-based apps is expected to grow further in 2021, with developers opting for a subscription-based model rather than the purchase-model.

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