Sensor Tower: iOS Users Spent $41.5 Billion on Apps in First Half of 2021, Up 22% Year-on-Year

A new Sensor Tower report claims Apple's App Store generated $41.5 billion revenue globally in the first half of 2021, representing 22.1% growth compared to the same period last year.

1h 2021 app revenue worldwide sensor tower
The app market research firm says consumer spending on in-app purchases, subscriptions, premium apps and games in the ‌App Store‌ was 1.8 times the revenue generated by Google's Play Store, which generated $23.4 billion over the same period.

Despite ‌App Store‌ spending, however, Google Play is projected to enjoy stronger year-on-year growth overall because of activity in markets still feeling the impact of the global health crisis.

In the first half of 2021, the ‌App Store‌ has grown 22.1 percent from about $34 billion in the H1 2020, a little more than seven percentage points lower than the 29.3 percent growth experienced during 1H20 due to accelerated spending during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Google Play's revenue in H1 2021 has grown 30 percent from $18 billion in 1H20, over four percentage points higher than the 26.8 percent growth experienced last year when compared to the same period in 2019. The outsized Y/Y revenue growth on Google's marketplace is being driven by markets such as the Philippines, where COVID-19 has resulted in continuing business closures and quarantines.

TikTok maintained its dominance in the top grossing mobile apps worldwide for the first half of 2021. Consumers are believed to have spent more than $920 million on TikTok in the period, up 74% when compared to the year-ago period.

Meanwhile, YouTube held onto its spot as the second highest-grossing non-game app, with an estimated consumer spend of $564.7 million. Tinder ranked third with an estimated revenue of approximately $520.3 million, while Japanese comic reader Piccoma and Disney's streaming platform Disney+ sat in fourth and fifth place, respectively.

1h 2021 top app revenue chart
An estimated 72.5 billion app downloads took place globally across both stores in 1H21, up 1.7% from 71.3 billion during the year-ago period. That figure pales in comparison to the 25.7% year-on-year growth experienced by app adoption last year when compared to the first half of 2019.

Global app spending reached almost $65 billion across iOS and Android in the same period, with the vast majority of money spent on games, which accounted for approximately $26 billion of the estimated $41.5 billion generated by Apple.

Apple is facing several threats to its highly lucrative ‌App Store‌ model, which has come in for criticism from some developers and antitrust bodies for its commission rate policy and alleged anticompetitive practices, including the pre-installation of Apple's apps on its own devices.

U.S. House lawmakers this month debuted sweeping bipartisan antitrust legislation in the form of six different bills aimed at major tech companies like Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google. The legislation targets the companies' market power in the areas of online commerce, advertising, media, and entertainment. One piece of legislation in particular, the non-discrimination bill, would prevent Apple from blocking users from deleting pre-installed apps.

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Lower Logo Feature 1

iPhone 17 Pro Coming Soon With These 14 New Features

Monday June 30, 2025 1:08 pm PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are less than three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max in September this year. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an...
Apple Watch Ultra Night Mode Screen

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Launching Later This Year With Two Key Upgrades

Wednesday July 2, 2025 1:13 pm PDT by
The long wait for an Apple Watch Ultra 3 appears to be nearly over, and it is rumored to feature both satellite connectivity and 5G support. Apple Watch Ultra's existing Night Mode In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is on track to launch this year with "significant" new features, including satellite connectivity, which would let you...
iPhone 17 Pro Lower Logo Magsafe

iPhone 17 Pro's New MagSafe Design Revealed in Leaked Photo

Wednesday July 2, 2025 8:37 am PDT by
The upcoming iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are rumored to have a slightly different MagSafe magnet layout compared to existing iPhone models, and a leaked photo has offered a closer look at the supposed new design. The leaker Majin Bu today shared a photo of alleged MagSafe magnet arrays for third-party iPhone 17 Pro cases. On existing iPhone models with MagSafe, the magnets form a...
Wi Fi WiFi General Feature

iOS 26 Adds a Useful New Wi-Fi Feature to Your iPhone

Wednesday July 2, 2025 6:36 am PDT by
iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 add a smaller yet useful Wi-Fi feature to iPhones and iPads. As spotted by Creative Strategies analyst Max Weinbach, sign-in details for captive Wi-Fi networks are now synced across iPhones and iPads running iOS 26 and iPadOS 26. For example, while Weinbach was staying at a Hilton hotel, his iPhone prompted him to fill in Wi-Fi details from his iPad that was already...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Max Battery Capacity Leaked

Thursday July 3, 2025 5:40 am PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature the biggest ever battery in an iPhone, according to the Weibo leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post, the leaker listed the battery capacities of the iPhone 11 Pro Max through to the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and added that the iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature a battery capacity of 5,000mAh: iPhone 11 Pro Max: 3,969mAh iPhone 12 Pro Max: 3,687mAh...
iOS 18

Apple Releases Second iOS 18.6 Public Beta

Tuesday July 1, 2025 10:19 am PDT by
Apple today seeded the second betas of upcoming iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 updates to public beta testers, with the betas coming just a day after Apple provided the betas to developers. Apple has also released a second beta of macOS Sequoia 15.6. Testers who have signed up for beta updates through Apple's beta site can download iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 from the Settings app on a compatible...
maxresdefault

New MacBook With A18 Pro Chip Spotted in Apple Code

Monday June 30, 2025 8:05 am PDT by
Apple is developing a MacBook with the A18 Pro chip, according to findings in backend code uncovered by MacRumors. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Earlier today, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that Apple is planning to launch a low-cost MacBook powered by an iPhone chip. The machine is expected to feature a 13-inch display, the A18 Pro chip, and color options...

Top Rated Comments

jlc1978 Avatar
52 months ago
It's pretty amazing how Apple and others have created marketplaces where developers can sell their products for almost no upfront costs beyond developing the app; and still keep 70% of the sales price. If the same model existed today as did in the 80's I'd bet 90% or more of the apps on the app store would not exist because developers could not afford the upfront costs of marketing, distribution, production, etc. for a hoped for enough sales to cover them and make a living off of their 30% cut of retail.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Apple_Robert Avatar
52 months ago

And Apple stole about $3 billion of that thanks to their App Store monopoly. Change can't come soon enough
Apple charging 30% to a developer who agrees to the terms of service does not equate to Apple stealing money, at least not in this universe.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
hortod1 Avatar
52 months ago
I think my kids are responsible for a lot of that
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
I7guy Avatar
52 months ago

It's pretty amazing how Apple and others have created marketplaces where developers can sell their products for almost no upfront costs beyond developing the app; and still keep 70% of the sales price. If the same model existed today as did in the 80's I'd bet 90% or more of the apps on the app store would not exist because developers could not afford the upfront costs of marketing, distribution, production, etc. for a hoped for enough sales to cover them and make a living off of their 30% cut of retail.
100%. "Back in the day" one had to bear the cost of printing, duplication, shipping etc. A major investment for a major risk. Here Apple has made it so the risk isn't in the financials...it's in the ability to succeed....which is the way it should be.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DelayedGratificationGene Avatar
52 months ago
Wondering why MacRumors didn’t pick up Apple filing for Epic judge to consider NCAA decision? Only Appleinsider highlighted. I’m no lawyer but from available commentary it seems like a pretty significant positive for Apple in the case. The media was literally all over the case reporting on what the judge had for lunch while happening so why not at least report this significant development now?
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
I7guy Avatar
52 months ago

Considering Androids global marketshare. It shows the average Android user is a total cheapskate compared to the average iOS/iPad OS user.
QED...and thus the above is proved. I wonder how off Sensor Tower is because the article starts with: "A new report by Sensor Tower claims...."


And Apple stole about $3 billion of that thanks to their App Store monopoly. Change can't come soon enough
I wouldn't hold my breath if what you mean by soon enough far out into the future in spite of all of the churning. But to your point, you're right. Apple hired "hit men" to hold guns to peoples heads who had iphones forcing them to buy a paid app from the app store. /s
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)