Q3 2020: People Spent A Combined 180 Billion Hours And $28 Billion In Mobile Apps

The 'COVID-19' coronavirus has changed many things in the lives of people.

From how they study, work and play, as well as how they spend their time and money on leisure and others.

And during July, August and September of 2020, people around the world spent a combined more than 180 billion hours on mobile apps. According to data from App Annie, an app analytics and app market data, this is a 25% increase year-over-year, and is indeed a record.

On its report, App Annie wrote:

"As communities rebound from the first wave of COVID-19 and brace for a second wave, mobile usage remains high globally — solidifying mobile’s role in our lives as consumers embed new app-habits and prioritize socially distant, yet connective, activities for remote learning, working from home, and shopping from the comfort and ease of their mobile devices. Mobile data is more important than ever before in navigating these times of massive change. These changes are reshaping the world and people need to understand how to adapt to new user behavior and preferences."
App Annie
Credit: App Annie

The most-used apps are owned by Facebook. They include the main Facebook app itself, WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram.

Following the four apps, were Amazon, Twitter, Netflix, Spotify and TikTok.

In-app spending went up 20% year-over-year to the record sum of $28 billion.

Most of that came from Apple’s platform, with $18 billion, or an increase of 20% year-over-year. Spending on Google's platform however, was only up to $10 billion, or an increase of 35% year-on-year.

In total, users downloaded a total of 33 billion new apps in Q3, 25 billion of which happened on the Google Play Store, and 9 billion through the Apple App Store. It should be noted that the number of apps downloaded from third-party app stores isn't recorded by App Annie in this report.

App Annie
Credit: App Annie

Among the apps people downloaded, apps that in the Games category are the most popular and the most profitable.

As for non-gaming apps, the biggest money makers are subscription based. Topping the list, is apps in the Entertainment category.

Mobile usage continues to remain high during the coronavirus pandemic.

With many people are still practicing lockdowns, or live in regions or cities that impose strict policies, the fact pushed consumers to use their gadgets and the internet more often than ever before.

From studying to working, to even leisure, many of those activities can be done through apps, and this in turn helped drive the record spending in apps and the huge surge in time spent in apps during the third quarter of 2020.

App Annie had earlier suggested that the coronavirus pandemic would create a long-lasting impact on consumer mobile behavior for probably a couple of years or more.

App Annie’s findings are similar to app intelligence firm Sensor Tower’s Q3 report, which was released earlier this October.

Sensor Tower estimated that app revenue in Q3 2020 grew to over $29 billion.