App spending in 2021 grew by an impressive 25 percent in 2021 and has increased to an impressive $135 billion.  Even better is the growth shows no signs of slowing down.

That is surprising because the industry at large has come under increased scrutiny and both the Apple and Google App Stores have introduced new developer rules governing in-app payments.

Overall Apple’s App Store leads in total revenues while Google’s massive Play Store leads in terms of total numbers of downloads. That is according to the most recently published research by App Annie.

Apple users accounted for 65 percent of the total app revenue with $87.5 billion. Google Play racked up $47.25 billion which is a lower number despite having a larger user base.

A different app analytics company named Sensor Tower reports similar data.  According to their research spending on apps will reach $133 billion in 2021 representing a 19.7 percent growth.

Of interest Sensor Tower’s data provides more detail on the total number of downloads as well.  They estimate that downloads from the Google Play store will top 100 billion by the end of this year (2021) versus just over 30 billion from Apple’s App Store which is a good way of comparing the relative size of the rival ecosystems.

There are some lingering concerns that as the pandemic recedes further into the background and life begins to return to normal that the explosive growth in app sales will taper off.  It’s entirely possible that the rate of growth will slow given that the pandemic has fundamentally altered a number of aspects of our daily life. However all expectations are that growth will continue to be robust.

If you’re thinking of launching a premium app to support your existing business now is a great time to do so.