Sensor Tower's State of App Engagement 2021 report shows top 500 apps globally averaged 91.7 million MAU in Q2 2021, up 8.4% Y/Y, approaching 100 million. Business apps had the highest CAGR at 42% since Q1 2018, driven by remote work. Consumers spent nearly 30 minutes daily in top entertainment apps, while social networking saw shorter sessions.
Among mobile games, shooter games averaged 7.6 million DAU, led by battle royale titles, though regulatory risks in China may affect PUBG Mobile.
App engagement is vital for retention and monetization. Key metrics include sessions, retention, and DAU/MAU. Strategies: effective onboarding, personalization, push notifications, and deep linking improve engagement and reduce churn.
The Nordics have high mobile usage, with increased app installs during the pandemic. Women dominate mobile gaming but men spend more. Poor UX and privacy concerns remain, though users welcome iOS 14 changes. Marketers should measure, invest in mobile, prioritize UX, and build trust.
In 2021, global mobile app revenue reached $133B, up 19.7% Y/Y. TikTok led non-game revenue with $2.3B, while game spending hit $89.6B. Downloads stayed flat at 143.6B, with TikTok and Facebook leading installs.
SKAdNetwork reveals advertiser-publisher connections, showing Social and Gaming apps drive 92% of paid installs. Privacy thresholds cause conversion value nulls, impacting optimization. Advertisers must adapt campaign structures to overcome NOI decline and leverage limited data for LTV predictions.
ROX measures financial impact of customer experiences on campaigns, focusing on contextualized, personalized, and frictionless CX to boost engagement and LTV.
U.S. smartphone users average 46 apps monthly in H1 2021, near pre-pandemic levels. Business, Medical, and Finance apps see growth. Mobile games share drops to 33% in June 2021 from 36% in 2019.
AppsFlyer’s 2026 creative data shows video and static image ads reward opposite creative qualities, so ad ops teams should plan, budget, and test them separately. Video spend is concentrating: gaming’s top 2% of video creatives captured 60.7% of spend, up from 53.5%, while image spend spread out. Top spenders are testing far more variations, widening the testing gap. Action/Strategy and Puzzle/Lifestyle show format-specific tone and social-proof reversals; Finance is the exception. Teams should use AI-assisted variation, analyze video winners deeply, keep broad image testing, and measure performance at attribute level.
Japan led per capita mobile spending at $149 in 2020-2021, up 18% YoY. Top 10 markets grew 22% YoY to $65.4B. Thailand saw largest per capita growth increase.
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