14 DAY TRIAL // A recent report by Sensor Tower reveals that the average iPhone user from the US spent about $40 on premium apps and in-app purchases per device last year, more than the $35 average in 2015. Mobile games continued to dominate the market, but other categories like entertainment also saw an increase.
The report shows that more than 80% of US App Store revenue in 2016 was generated by games, and US iPhone owners spent an average of $27 per device on games in 2016, up from $25 in 2015. However, the games category isn’t the one that increased in the past year, entertainment saw a 130% growth from $1.00 in 2015 to $2.30 in 2016.
The category includes some of the highest grossing apps, like HBO NOW, Hulu and Netflix, with the latter growing the most in the past year. Netflix started monetizing through App Store subscriptions in late 2015 and managed to generate more than $58 million revenue from the category in Q4 2016.
iPhone users installed fewer apps last year
The Music category grew from $3.40 to $3.60 per device in 2016, while the Social Networking category reached $2.00.
The report also revealed that the average number of app downloads per active iPhone declined from 35 in 2015 to 33 in 2016. The Games category declined from 10.5 to 9.9 installs per device last year, while iPhone users downloaded on average 2.3 social networking apps in 2016, down from 3.3 in 2015.
Still, the report reveals that downloads for certain app categories, like social networking and games, continue to make up the biggest share and people are spending more on entertainment and games from the App Store.
However, the report also reveals that 1% of monetizing publishers are responsible for more than 94% of in-app spending on the App Store. Overall, the App Store is doing well, Apple recently reported that the App Store recorded double the revenue of Google’s Play store last year.