Apple App Store, Google Play Store chart growth amid Covid-19 lockdown

The Covid-19 outbreak has brought the world at a standstill by forcing people from various countries across the globe in a state of lockdown. At a time when the virus outbreak has put a strain on companies and economies at large, one business seems to be booming -- the mobile app business.

According to a report by App Annie, Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store have charted significant growth in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the same time last year. This time coincides with the virus outbreak and by extension with an increased smartphone usage.

As per the report, daily time spent on smartphones grew by 30% to 5 hours per day on average from 2019. While Italy, which is the second most affected country,it grew by 11%. On the other hand, time spent on smartphones in France, Germany, and the US grew by 15%, 10% and 10% respectively in March 2020.

App Annie says that downloads on Play Store grew 5% year-over-year to 22.5 billion, while iOS downloads grew by 15% year-over-year to over 9 billion in the first quarter of 2020. As far as non-gaming apps are concerned, while on Play Store non-gaming apps accounted for 55% of all downloads, on iOS the figure was slightly higher at 65%.

In terms of the market distribution , India and Brazil were the two biggest markets for Google Play in terms of downloads in Q1 2020 while China and the United States ruled the charts on the App Store.

"Consumer spend on iOS grew 5% year over year to $15B in Q1 2020, and 5% year over year on Google Play to over $8.3B," the report noted.

In terms of popularity, TikTok, WhatsApp and Facebook were the most downloaded apps, while Tinder, YouTube and Netflix were the apps where most users splurged, the report noted.