European mobile app users spent $4.6 billion in Q3

According to Sensor Tower data, European mobile app users spent an estimated $4.6 billion across Google Play and the App Store in the third quarter of 2021, up 21% year-over-year. European spending, calculated based on subscriptions, in-app purchases and premium apps, accounted for 13.6% of global mobile app revenue in Q3 2021, exceeding $33.7 billion.

The App Store accounted for 53% of user spending in Europe, generating $2.4 billion in gross revenue in Q3 2021, an increase of 20%, while Google Play revenue grew by 23.5% Y/Y to $2.1 billion.

The App Store and Google Play totaled 6.4 billion unique app installs in the third quarter, down 3% year on year.

As usual, Google Play outnumbered the App Store in terms of app downloads and amassed 4.7 billion installs in Europe in the third quarter, down nearly 4% year on year. Meanwhile, the App Store recorded 1.7 billion downloads, with install growth remaining steady year-over-year.

Google Play accounted for 73.2% of all downloads, while the App Store accounted for 26.8%.

Also Read: U.S. users spent 4.2 hours daily in mobile apps in Q3 2021

The United Kingdom generated the most revenue in Q3 2021, with $894 million in user spending last year, followed by Germany, France, Russia, and Turkey. 

Russia generated the biggest amount of downloads in Q3 with 1.4 billion installs, followed by Turkey (819 million) and the U.K. (573 million).

Tinder was the top-grossing non-game app in Europe in the third quarter, generating approximately $105 million in user spend,  followed by Disney+, YouTube, TikTok, and Google One. TikTok, meanwhile, became the most downloaded non-game app in Europe with 24.2 million installs in Q3, followed by WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram, and Facebook. 

According to the data, mobile games generated $2.8 billion in Europe during the third quarter,up 16.7% YoY. In total, mobile gaming accounted for about 60% of all mobile app revenue in Europe based on player spending.

Also Read: 64 mobile games hit $1 billion in revenue as of H1 2021

Globally, the App Store generated more game revenue than Google Play, while in Europe the opposite was true. Google Play generated $1.6 billion in revenue from mobile games in the region, up 14.3% year-on-year, while the App Store recorded nearly $1.1 billion in user spending, up 10 percent. Overall, Google Play represented 58.3% of total game revenue in Europe, while the App Store accounted for 41.7%.

When it comes to game downloads, the App Store and Google Play accumulated a combined 2.8 billion game installs in Europe, down 3.4% YoY from 2.9 billion in Q3 2020. Google Play represented 82.4% of total game downloads in Europe with 2.3 billion installs, while the App Store accounted for 17.6% with 488.4 million downloads.