Special Report

The state of mobile in 2022: Millions of apps, billions of downloads, trillions of hours

The incredible ongoing growth of the global mobile market – and the value of games – are highlighted in App Annie’s State of Mobile 2022 report

The state of mobile in 2022: Millions of apps, billions of downloads, trillions of hours

This article is part of an ongoing series of data-driven articles from PocketGamer.biz and App Annie highlighting trends in the global mobile games sector using App Annie’s Game IQ analytics

The ongoing growth of the global mobile market is revealed, along with several sets of staggering data showing the ever-increasing size of the mobile world alongside the increasingly valuable games sector, in App Annie’s State of Mobile 2022 report.

Billions of downloads, trillions of hours

In 2021, 230 billion apps were downloaded, which equates to 435,000 downloads every minute. The generated revenue of $170 billion (or $320,000 per minute), with users spending an average of 4.8 hours per day using their mobile devices, or around one-third of their waking hours. This led to a total of over 3.8 trillion hours spent on mobile devices worldwide across the year.

For comparison, 233 apps generated revenue of over $100 million, compared to only 38 movies which exceeded the same amount at the box office.

New releases

Over the course of 2021, over two million new apps and games were released, bringing the total number of apps released to date to over 21 million. There are currently 5.4 million apps and games now available to download through the app stores, with 1.8 million of these on Apple iOS and 3.6 million on Google Play.

While games may only represent 15 per cent of all new apps released last year, the value of the sector within mobile is growing rapidly. Of the 233 games and apps which generated over $100 million in revenue in 2021, 174 were games, with only 59 apps achieving the same result.

IDFA predictions false

While changes around IDFA gave rise to predictions of problems in mobile advertising, they failed to materialise in 2021, with the sector also experiencing unprecedented growth. Mobile advertising exceeded $295 billion in 2021, up 23 per cent year-on-year. For comparison, this would rank the sector 41st in terms of global economies. The market is expected to continue growing and is predicted to break $350 billion in 2022.

Download Now

In addition to the global overview, the App Annie State of Mobile 2022 report also drills down into multiple sectors including gaming, retail, streaming video, dating, food and drink and many more. The report is available free and can be downloaded here.


PocketGamer.biz regularly posts content from a variety of guest writers across the games industry. These encompass a wide range of topics and people from different backgrounds and diversities, sharing their opinion on the hottest trending topics, undiscovered gems and what the future of the business holds.