A Numerical Insight Into Android Market
Google Play Store used to be called Android Market. A market where you can do all the shopping for your smartphone for free as well as against monetary transactions. Shopping from the play store enhances the usability of your smartphone multiple times as smartphones are not about making the calls and using the calculators. Different apps from this android market help you explore the panorama of smartphone use cases. Your smartphone might be worth thousands of dollars, but the actual usability comes only from the apps you use in it.
Google Play Store has millions of apps registered in it that can be downloaded by android users. If you are also one of the android users, you would be well familiar with this platform. But, have you ever wondered how many people out there are using this platform, how many apps this platform carries, or how huge the complete network of Play store is. Today’s blog is going to be all about interesting facts and statistics about the Google Play Store. So, when you step on the platform next time, you know how immense the platform is.
Major Google Play Store Statistics in 2022
1. Total Number of Apps on Google Play Store
- The Play store had a total of 3,298,329 apps on its platform as per the 1st quarter of 2022.
- The apps keep coming on and getting off the platform.
- The last and first quarters of 2021 and 2022, respectively, experienced a difference of 30% in the total number of apps available in the store.
- In the fourth quarter of 2018, Play Store had the fewest apps in recent years, with a number of 1,977,776.
- The fourth quarter of 2021 carried the maximum apps in the history of Playstore, with a number of 4,677,402.
2. Top Ten Mobile App Categories Available on Play Store
There are tens of mobile app categories on the play store. However, some of them top the list in terms of app availability and the number of downloads. The following list interprets the top ten categories having the maximum number of apps. We will provide you insight about the number of free and paid apps in these categories as well.
| Rank | Category | Total number of apps | Number of Paid Apps | Number of Free Apps |
| 1. | Education | 263,682 | 13,551 | 250,131 |
| 2. | Business | 171,540 | 1,679 | 169,861 |
| 3. | Music & Audio | 161,682 | 2,882 | 158,800 |
| 4. | Tools | 153,516 | 7,770 | 145,746 |
| 5. | Entertainment | 142,491 | 3,978 | 138,513 |
| 6. | Lifestyle | 122,461 | 2,528 | 119,933 |
| 7. | Books & References | 120,305 | 8,010 | 112,295 |
| 8. | Food & Drinks | 113,451 | 660 | 112,791 |
| 9. | Shopping | 107,987 | 283 | 107,704 |
| 10. | Personalization | 104,150 | 16,367 | 87,783 |
3. Number of Apps Released per Month
- Tens of thousands of apps are released every month on Google Play Store.
- The latest reading of February 2022 indicates the upload of 81.3K apps on the Play store.
- The maximum number of apps were registered in March 2019, with a figure of 141.4K.
- November of 2021 accounted for the least apps uploaded, with only 68.9K apps.
4. Total Categories of Apps on Play Store
| Category | Number of Apps | Apps with above 50K downloads | Paid apps | Average price |
| Education | 263,682 | 19603 (7%) | 13551 (5%) | $ 6.47 |
| Business | 171,540 | 6242 (4%) | 1679 (1%) | $ 13.78 |
| Music & Audio | 161,682 | 11425 (7%) | 2882 (2%) | $ 5.46 |
| Tools | 153,516 | 21892 (14%) | 7770 (5%) | $ 7.74 |
| Entertainment | 142,491 | 20102 (14%) | 3978 (3%) | $ 6.12 |
| Lifestyle | 122,461 | 11026 (9%) | 2528 (2%) | $ 7.31 |
| Books & References | 120,305 | 11026 (9%) | 8010 (7%) | $ 5.97 |
| Food & Drinks | 113,451 | 3189 (3%) | 660 (1%) | $ 13.67 |
| Shopping | 107,987 | 7125 (7%) | 283 (0%) | $ 13.80 |
| Personalization | 104,150 | 13195 (13%) | 16367 (16%) | $ 1.90 |
| Productivity | 100,813 | 7429 (7%) | 3794 (4%) | $ 9.66 |
| Health & Fitness | 91350 | 6319 (7%) | 2480 (3%) | $ 6.81 |
| Finance | 83364 | 11836 (14%) | 1544 (2%) | $ 8.84 |
| Travel & Local | 70204 | 4847 (7%) | 2490 (4%) | $ 3.76 |
| Casual | 61568 | 9641 (16%) | 1672 (3%) | $ 8.32 |
| Puzzle | 60144 | 8039 (13%) | 3020 (5%) | $ 6.35 |
| Arcade | 59022 | 5462 (9%) | 1991 (3%) | $ 8.34 |
| Communication | 58212 | 5133 (9%) | 1141 (2%) | $ 7.45 |
| Social | 50143 | 5003 (10%) | 481 (1%) | $ 8.67 |
| Sports | 47809 | 3641 (8%) | 2412 (5%) | $ 19.67 |
| News & Magazines | 44775 | 3965 (9%) | 225 (1%) | $ 4.50 |
| Medical | 41326 | 2731 (7%) | 2446 (6%) | $ 11.52 |
| Photography | 35597 | 7395 (21%) | 1063 (3%) | $ 6.57 |
| Maps & Navigation | 33337 | 3400 (10%) | 1479 (4%) | $ 5.90 |
| Action | 32386 | 6738 (21%) | 1261 (4%) | $ 4.27 |
| Simulation | 28272 | 10456 (37%) | 1060 (4%) | $ 5.08 |
| Auto & Vehicles | 27444 | 1994 (7%) | 674 (2%) | $ 8.47 |
| Adventure | 25041 | 4845 (19%) | 1762 (7%) | $ 5.70 |
| Educational | 24745 | 3682 (15%) | 2504 (10%) | $ 3.38 |
| Art & Design | 20209 | 2064 (10%) | 737 (4%) | $ 4.74 |
| Beauty | 18857 | 866 (5%) | 81 (0%) | $ 6.61 |
| Events | 18853 | 320 (2%) | 68 (0%) | $ 12.59 |
| House & Home | 18738 | 984 (5%) | 195 (1%) | $ 5.33 |
| Trivia | 14967 | 1756 (12%) | 365 (2%) | $ 6.10 |
| Video Player & Editors | 14118 | 3620 (26%) | 581 (4%) | $ 7.92 |
| Role Playing | 13734 | 5406 (39%) | 995 (7%) | $ 5.08 |
| Board | 11815 | 2446 (21%) | 720 (6%) | $ 4.63 |
| Strategy | 11801 | 3299 (28%) | 814 (7%) | $ 6.96 |
| Racing | 11770 | 3452 (29%) | 333 (3%) | $ 6.60 |
| Word | 11757 | 1915 (16%) | 393 (3%) | $ 5.25 |
| Card | 9785 | 2830 (29%) | 532 (5%) | $ 3.54 |
| Sports Games | 8613 | 2406 (28%) | 418 (5%) | $ 4.78 |
| Weathers | 8581 | 2628 (31%) | 336 (4%) | $ 6.01 |
| Dating | 7116 | 1218 (17%) | 60 (1%) | $ 13.27 |
| Casino | 6751 | 1861 (28%) | 341 (5%) | $ 8.62 |
| Music | 6144 | 1339 (22%) | 194 (3%) | $ 5.85 |
| Libraries & Demo | 5686 | 394 (7%) | 134 (2%) | $ 10.07 |
| Parenting | 5022 | 699 (14%) | 207 (4%) | $ 6.09 |
| Comics | 2944 | 699 (24%) | 184 (6%) | $ 4.42 |
5. Total Number of Apps Downloaded
- With the increasing number of smartphone users, the number of apps downloaded every year is also drawing a positive curve for a couple of years.
- Starting with 55 billion downloads in 2016, Google Play Store supported downloads of 111.3 billion in the previous year (2021).
6. Top Ten Apps Downloaded from Play Store in 2021
TikTok topped the list of most downloaded apps from Google Play Store in 2021 with 656 million downloads, followed by Instagram and Facebook with 545 million and 416 million downloads, respectively. Below are the top ten most downloaded apps from Play Store in 2021.
| App | Number of Downloads |
| TikTok | 656 million |
| 545 million | |
| 416 million | |
| 395 million | |
| Telegram | 329 million |
| Snapchat | 327 million |
| Zoom | 300 million |
| Messenger | 268 million |
| CapCut | 255 million |
| Spotify | 203 million |
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7. Apps with Highest Revenue in February 2022
Coin Master was the highest revenue-generating app in February 2022, with a revenue of $100.06 million. The application is followed by TikTok and Candy Crush Saga. Below is the list of top ten revenue-generating apps in February 2022.
| App | Revenue |
| Coin Master | $100.06 million |
| TikTok | $81.98 million |
| Candy Crush Saga | $58.31 million |
| Garena Free Fire – Illuminate | $31.15 million |
| Roblox | $30.14 million |
| Clash of Clans | $27.64 million |
| Genshin Impact | $27.3 million |
| Gardenscapes | $21.87 million |
| Homescapes | $20.38 million |
| Evony: The King’s Return | $18.87 million |
8. Rating Distribution of Play Store Apps
Rating distribution of apps in the play store helps users get an idea about the service and standard of the app according to the use case. If the app is able to meet the expectation of the user regarding the respective functionality, it is often rewarded with a 4-5 star rating by the user. On the other hand, the apps which don’t manage to serve the purpose receive meager ratings like 1-3 stars. Below is the rating distribution of apps on the playstore:
| Rating | Number of apps |
| No rating | 2,136,954 |
| Less than 2.5 | 26,841 |
| 2.5-3.0 | 21,887 |
| 3.0-3.5 | 47,623 |
| 3.5-4.0 | 78,475 |
| 4.0-4.5 | 137,326 |
| 4.5-5.0 | 142,368 |
9. Top App Trends in Google Play Store in 2022
Smartphone apps are composed of several kinds of technology instilled into them. The technology to be used in the smartphone is decided on the basis of the type of app and its purpose. Following are the top ten trends that are being instilled in the apps available at Google Play Store:
- Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
- Chatbot development
- Apps for wearable devices
- IoT enabled mobile apps
- AR-VR development
- Securing the payment methods
- App-integrated with beacon Technology
- Evolution of 5G technology
- Mcommerce app development & integration
- Cloud-computing integration
10. Price Distribution of Apps in Play Store
Most of the apps on the Google Play Store are free for android users. However, a fraction of apps requires the fees and charges to be operated. Following is the price distribution for a number of apps on the Google Play Store:
11. Most Popular App Categories in the Google Play Store
According to the 1st quarter of 2022, the Games application on Play Store tops the list of most popular apps on the platform. The Game mobile apps secured the 13.63% share of available apps on the platform, followed by Education apps securing a share of 10.41%. You can find the list of ten most popular app categories with their respective share attached below:
| App category | Share |
| Games | 13.63% |
| Education | 10.41% |
| Business | 7.17% |
| Entertainment | 5.44% |
| Music & Audio | 4.85% |
| Food & Drink | 4.71% |
| Shopping | 4.69% |
| Lifestyle | 4.63% |
| Productivity | 4.11% |
| Books & References | 4.07% |
12. App Usage by Age
Every generation is engaged in using smartphone applications. Let it be baby boomers or Gen-Z; everyone uses the application as per their use case and interests. However, a difference can be experienced in the contribution of different age groups in the usage of smartphone applications from the Android Play Store. According to Research, Millennials are the most significant user segment of Android apps, while Boomers are the smallest one. Following data interprets the app use case by different age groups around the globe:
| Age group | Monthly hours spent on apps |
| 18-24 | 112.6 |
| 25-34 | 102.4 |
| 35-44 | 93.6 |
| 45-54 | 75.6 |
| 55-64 | 69.3 |
| 65+ | 51.4 |
13. App Usage by Countries
With 1,182 billion hours spent on mobile applications, China tops the list of App usage. India secured the second position with 669 billion hours, followed by the USA, having a 194 hours use case in 2021. Following is the list of the top ten countries with maximum hours spent on mobile applications in 2021.
| Country | Hours spent |
| China | 1,182 |
| India | 669 |
| United States | 194 |
| Brazil | 193 |
| Indonesia | 155 |
| Pakistan | 133 |
| Philippines | 109 |
| Russia | 108 |
| Mexico | 99 |
| Vietnam | 79 |
Market Overview: Google Play Store and Apple App Store
| Comparison factor | Google Play Store | Apple App Store |
| Established in year | 2008 (formerly known as Android market) | 2008 |
| Total number of apps | 3,298,329 | 3,790,647 |
| Total number of downloads (year 2021) | 111.3 billion | 144.4 billion |
| Revenue generated (year 2021) | $48 billion | $85.1 billion |
The target audience for both the stores completely differs. Suppose you wish to develop an app and upload it to one of the stores. Here, your decision needs to be based on facts, targets, audience, and your vision of the app. If you wish to generate good revenue to satisfy the app development cost, you can use the Apple App Store. On the other hand, if your purpose is to make the app accessible to a broad audience, you must choose Google Play Store.
How Apps Are Registered on Google Play Store?
Before talking about the numbers, let’s know how the apps come on the store and are made available to all android users. So, the process of uploading the app is pretty simple and can be summarised all in four steps:
- Sign up for a Google Play Developer account: You can use your google account to set up a developer account. Once the developer account has been set up, you can use Play Console to manage and publish your apps.
- Accept the Developer Distribution Agreement: You need to accept the Developer Distribution Agreement in order to complete the sign-up and continue the process.
- Pay registration fee: To set up a Google Play Developer Account, you need to pay a one-time registration fee. The charge of this registration fee is $25, which can be paid with credits and debit cards of MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Discover (for the USA only), and Visa Electron (outside of the USA only).
- Complete the account: Provide your personal information and complete the registration. The play store will allow you once the registration has been completed, and you can manage and upload any app with the Play Console.
Google Play Store Upcoming Statistics & Trends in 2023
It is difficult to predict specific trends in the Google Play Store for 2023 as the market is constantly changing. However, some potential trends that may occur in the next few years include the following:
1. Increased Emphasis on Personalization and Targeting: With the rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning, it is likely that the Google Play Store will prioritize personalized recommendations and targeted advertising to individual users.
2. Growth in Subscription-Based Business Models: With the success of subscription-based apps such as Spotify and Netflix, it is likely that more developers will adopt this business model in the future.
3. Greater Focus on User Experience and Engagement: As competition in the app market continues to increase, developers will likely focus on creating apps that offer a seamless and engaging user experience to stand out from the competition.
4. Expansion of Augmented and Virtual Reality Applications: With the growing popularity of AR and VR technology, it is likely that more apps in these categories will emerge in the Google Play Store.
5. Increased Competition from Alternative App Stores: While the Google Play Store is currently the dominant app store, alternative app stores such as Amazon Appstore and Aptoide are gaining traction and could potentially pose a threat in the future.
Learn more about uploading an app
At a Glance
- Google Play store can be portrayed as the biggest store for applications.
- You can upload any app to store in 4 simple steps.
- Google Play Store carries around 3,298,329 apps for android users.
- Education apps are the biggest category as per the number of apps, with about 263,682 applications on the platform.
- 81.3K apps were listed on Google Play Store in February 2022 only.
- 111.3 billion downloads of apps were performed in the year 2021.
- TikTok was the most downloaded app in 2021, with over 656 million downloads.
- China tops the list of most hours spent using mobile applications in 2021.
How Can EmizenTech Help You?
Once you have gone through the above article, the thought should hit you that why people are developing so many apps and uploading them to the store. Well, it is not for charity, nor just for fun. It’s all about business and making fortunes. It is the age of technology and digitalization. The one adopting it will survive & grow, and others are going to suffer either today or tomorrow. COVID has been the best demo for the future scenario where any physical activity is impossible, and thus the digital & online platform returned the pace to the world with its applications. The owners of big, popular apps have made their fortune, and many others are on their way to the same.
If you want to be a part of this digitalization journey, you have landed in the best place. Emizentech is one of the leading app development firms serving its clients in different markets worldwide. Today, we have a trusted client base of more than 450 companies, many of which are listed in the fortune 500 list of companies.
Our team carries app development experts who will develop an app according to your preferences and requirements. Our market and industry experts will provide you with important insights before developing an app. We don’t just offer the app or website development, but we offer the proper guidance to you.
Wrapping Up
To make smartphones really smart, applications are playing a vital role. With more than 3,298,329 apps, Google Play Store is the biggest market for the apps among Android users. The platform provides the application of all categories, which enhances the use case of the smartphone to the next level. Tens of thousands of apps are being uploaded to the play store every month. The apps supporting the education industry have secured the first position among the various app domains available on the play store.
With the burgeoning user base of smartphones, the demand and space for mobile applications are securing an upward curve. With it, app development and uploading are also emerging as a big industry.
Frequently Asked Questions about Google Play Store Statistics
Most of the time, the Google Play Store comes pre-installed on your Android devices. However, for any XYZ reasons, if you wish to re-install the Google Play store, Download the APK file for the same and install the play store from that file.
>> Sign up for a Google Play Developer account
>> Accept the Developer Distribution Agreement
>> Pay registration fee
>> Complete the account
You need to pay a registration fee of $25 to upload the app on Google Play store.
Google Play Store is completely free to use. However, the apps you want to download from the store might charge you the fee.
According to the recent data, Google Play Store has around 3,298,329 apps ready to install for its Android users.
Yes, the apps are pulled down for several reasons. The developer can pull the app down due to any errors or changes. The Play Store itself removes a lot of apps which seems to be violating the policies of the platform.
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