This includes both the Google Play Store and the iOS App Store. As expected, gaming made up the majority of mobile spending this year, and years prior. According to the data, on average, 65¢ of every $1 was spent on a game. This means that, statistically, more than half of the money you spent in the first three months of the year went to those special crystals or cool outfits. If we break that down per app store, 73% of the money spent on the Play Store was on games. Also, of all the app downloads on the Play Store, 44% of them were apps. As for the iOS App Store, 60% of the money spent was on gaming. When it comes to app downloads, 28% were games. Altogether, the source predicts that there were about 14 billion app downloads in total. Q1 of 2022 marked the highest year when it comes to mobile app spending. It increased year over year, and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down. Now, we saw the massive boost in numbers when the Covid-19 pandemic hit. More people were stuck at home and, thus, they didn’t have much more to do other than stay home and play games. Even though people are starting to make their way back to work, the numbers are still growing. In Q1 2019, the weekly average spending added up to just over $0.5 billion. In Q1 of 2022, we’re approaching $0.8 billion in mobile game spending.
So, which games topped the charts?
The list of top games might surprise you and it might not. Starting off with the most downloaded game in the last quarter, that was a battle royale game named Free Fire. That was followed by 2012’s Subway Surfers in 2nd place and Roblox in 3rd. Other games in the top 10 were Candy Crush, Race Masters, Count Masters, Ludo King, Talking Tom 2, Magic Tiles 3, and 8 Ball Pool. When it comes to spending, people spent the most on Genshin Impact with Roblox in 2nd and Honour of Kings in 3rd. The rest in the top 10 are Candy Crush Saga, Game For Peace, Coin Master, Uma Musume Pretty Derby, Lineage W, PUBG Mobile, and Free Fire. Lastly, when it comes to the highest monthly active users, Roblox is in 1st this time around with Candy Crush Saga in 2nd and Free Fire in 3rd. They’re followed by Subway Surfers, PUBG Mobile, Minecraft Pocket Edition, Clash Royale, Lugo King, CoD Mobile, and Pokemon Go.
