Heavyweight Apps

App Annie's new report, the State of Mobile 2022, has revealed the ever growing pool of heavyweight apps - those which are generating more than $100 million in annual consumer spending. In 2021, this stood at 233 - 174 of which were games. That makes for an increase of 132 since as recently as 2017. In the same time period, there were just 38 movies with global box office proceedings of the same magnitude - although this is just as representative of the film industry's struggles in the pandemic as it is of the rise of apps.

According to the report, there was a massive $170 billion spent in app stores last year, equating to more than $320,000 per minute. Accompanying the growth, advertisers plowed $295 billion into mobile ad spend in 2021. As stated in the report: "Improved connectivity, screen size and hardware have made it easier than ever before to enjoy premium applications & gaming experiences on-the-go.Consumers, consequently, migrated share of wallet to mobile as the de facto gaming console and tool for managing our lives."