How Many Apps Does the Average Person Have?
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Job hunting, dating, and mobile banking transactions can now be done through user-friendly apps. People’s demand for easy access to services and products propelled the increasing number of mobile apps. Presently, an average person uses 46 apps on their mobile devices.
Developing new software is a good venture, but it needs to be downloaded and used; otherwise, it’s just another app. To better understand the mobile app market and usage, here’s a mini stat report on the average person’s number of apps, mobile app usage statistics, and more.
Editor’s Choice
- An average mobile phone user has 80 apps installed.
- Gaming apps rank 1st in the list of most downloaded types of applications.
- 98% of the global app revenue comes from free apps.
- Google Play Store beats Apple App Store for the most app downloads at 27.1 billion downloads.
Application Usage Statistics 2023
Users don’t often utilize 62% of the 80 apps installed on mobile devices; others are only opened once. This is only a part of a mobile user’s usage psychology. Read on to find other eye-opening stats on usage statistics and application installations.
Application Installations and Actual Usage Statistics
On average, millennials download more apps, at around 60-80, than any other generation. However, Gen Z uses more apps than millennials, baby boomers, and Gen X combined. Gen Z mobile users spend more time on mobile apps, around 112.6 hours monthly, 10.2 hours more than millennials.
This section gathers essential stats on people’s behavior when downloading and using mobile applications. See if the following stats resonate with your app downloading and usage habits.
1. An average user has 80 applications on their device.
(BuildFire)
For every 80 installed apps on mobile devices, an average person only consistently uses 9 of them and revisits 30 every month. This stat shows that people download several apps at a time but only utilize a few.
The low retention rate of apps can be attributed to several reasons. The most glaring cause for this is that users have the habit of getting a surge of curiosity for an app, then losing interest if it doesn’t serve its imagined purpose.
2. Gaming applications rank 1st in the most downloaded app category.
(MobileAppDaily, Computerworld, GameMarketingGenie)
Gaming apps are the most downloaded applications in Apple App Store and Google Play Store. As a top-rated app category for tablet users, they are more likely to pay and install a gaming app than smartphone users.
Mobile gaming applications are a popular choice for developers whose concern is profit and volume of usage. However, it’s a highly competitive category for developers and creators as they have to compete with over 800 million registered games.
3. Free apps generate 98% of worldwide app revenue.
(SpaceOTechnologies)
Most mobile phone users use free apps when downloading applications and software. Due to this, paid apps are only 3.2% of the overall applications in the Google Play Store and 5.8% in the Apple App Store.
Free apps profit by integrating in-app purchases, which allows users to pay for a premium feature. Other monetary strategies include video ads, subscriptions, affiliate marketing, and sponsored content.
4. Google Play Store has the most app downloads, with around 27.1 billion.
(Statista, Bankmyell, CNBC)
According to Statista, the Google Play Store generates the most app downloads worldwide, generating 27.1 billion in the Q3 of 2022. Part of why the Play Store stands out is because Android remains the popular operating system of choice in the world, with a market share of 71.63%.
However, the Apple App Store wins in terms of generating substantial profit returns. In the last quarter of 2022, iOS apps raked $21.2 billion. The success factors of the Apple App Store are its more stringent app review process and iPhone security, which produces higher-than-usual quality apps.
5. An average smartphone user spends 2 hours and 51 minutes on apps.
(InsiderIntelligence, Statista)
Smartphone users spend 3 hours and 10 minutes of their day using a mobile device. 90% of the time spent on mobile are on apps. This much attention to apps has to do with the versatility that apps offer – entertainment, communication, shopping, and social media networking are only some of the activities you engage in with apps.
Check out America’s ranking of the most indispensable apps:
| Application | % of people that says they can’t live without this app |
| 17% | |
| 13% | |
| Gmail | 9% |
| YouTube | 8% |
| 7% | |
| Chrome and Google Maps | 6% |
| WhatsApp, Amazon, Facebook Messenger | 5% |
Conclusion
Statistics show that app usage and installation are still at an all-time high despite the low app retention rate. Hence, developers aren’t simply choosing the safest genre to put their bets on. Creators are now more sensitive about the marketing aspect of the business. Trends, updates, and stat reports serve as a compass for investment decisions.
Aside from the tips mentioned, there are proven touchstones in app development that users and developers should consider, such as improving loading times, increasing interface responsiveness, addressing bug issues quickly, not forcing updates, and maintaining content freshness.
