14 DAY TRIAL // The Windows Store continues to play a key role in Windows 8.1’s overall market performance, but statistics are showing that more apps are being released for users who already installed this particular operating system.
Charts unveiled by Microsoft this morning show that “Games” continues to be the top category in the Windows Store with nearly 40 percent of the downloads, followed by Entertainment, Social, Music and Videos, Tools, Productivity, and Photos.
“In April, Games continued to be the most popular category for all devices, followed by other categories with significant download share including Entertainment, Social, Music & Videos, and Tools. Windows downloads are highly skewed towards games more so than Windows Phone,” Microsoft explained.
As far as the categories with the highest incremental download opportunity are concerned, “Social” holds the leading position, while “Photo” is the runner-up.
“Apps for Windows tablets and PCs present different trends than those for Windows Phone. On Windows, like our previous trends updates, Social is the #1 category with nearly 2x average downloads per app than the second category. Photos, Productivity, and Games are the next categories with the highest opportunity,” the company added.
The United States is the country with the highest number of downloads, but the United Kingdom, France, China, and Russia are also among the nations where Windows 8.1 apps seem to be really appealing. Surprisingly, China is also part of the top even though the country recently decided to ban Windows 8 on government computers.
In-app purchases are also increasing, Microsoft revealed, again with games holding the leading spot, followed by entertainment and lifestyle.
“In-app purchase is the #1 source of paid revenue for monetizing games and generates more than 50% of game revenue for both platforms. It is also a significant revenue source for many categories in both Stores,” it said. “Some categories where in-app purchase is used less frequently—for example Tools, Social, Health & Fitness, or Government—might benefit from in-app purchase opportunities to potentially increase revenue.”
Third-party services that are keeping an eye on the apps listed for download in the store indicate that there are approximately 160,000 items available for Windows 8.1 users, with figures expected to grow even more in the coming months.
There’s one major drawback, though. The amount of spam in the store is unbelievably high and although the software giant has promised to tackle this issue, there still are plenty of clones and fake apps that are attempt to capitalize on the popularity of some other apps in an attempt to steal people’s money.