Consumer spending on the top 100 non-game subscription-based apps on mobile platforms grew from 13 billion in 2020 to 18 billion in 2021, a new report from Sensor Tower shows.
According to the data, revenue from subscription apps purchased on the App Store and the Google Play Store accounted for over a third of the $131.6 billion that consumers spent on in-app purchases last year.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, 86 of the top 100 earning non-game apps worldwide offered subscriptions, which is down from 87 in the same quarter of 2020.
Spending on subscription-based apps in the App Store was vastly more than in the Play Store.
As in previous years, consumers spent more on subscription-based apps downloads from the App Store than on Google Play. The top 100 non-game subscription apps on the App Store generated $13.5 billion in 2021, up 31 percent Y/Y from $10.3 billion. Worldwide consumers spent $4.8 billion on the top 100 subscription apps on Google's marketplace, up 78 percent from $2.7 billion in 2020. While the top subscription apps on Google Play experienced more growth, the top apps on the App Store saw nearly three times as much spending last year.
The only performance indicator in which the Play Store beat the App Store was in terms of year-on-year growth for U.S. user spending on subscription apps.
Consumer spending in the U.S. saw a similar breakdown, with the top 100 subscription apps generating $6 billion on the App Store, up 33 percent Y/Y from $4.5 billion. The cohort saw approximately $2.5 billion in consumer spending on Google Play, up 79 percent from $1.4 billion in 2020.
In terms of app spending, the parent company of the internet giant, Alphabet, was once again the big winner this year, with over $1 billion generated worldwide and over $600 million in the U.S.
Despite the numbers, subscription-based apps divide their users between those for and against the revenue model. When Apple made changes to its App Store, it began to give developers incentives to sell their apps for a recurring fee. Usually, Apple takes 30 percent of app revenue, but developers who are able to maintain a subscription with a customer longer than a year see Apple cut their cut down to 15 percent.
In late 2017, Apple began allowing developers to offer discounted introductory pricing and time-limited free trials on auto-renewable app subscriptions, based on the idea that subscriptions provide a higher likelihood of an engaged audience.
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