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Brazil and Mexico saw 20% growth in in-app spending in 2022

Brazil is the world’s #2 market for time spent in apps

Brazil and Mexico saw 20% growth in in-app spending in 2022

Brazil saw a 20% increase in in-app spending in 2022, rising to $1.134 billion compared to $1.37 billion in 2021. This strong performance saw the country leap over Saudi Arabia and Italy to become the world’s eleventh most valuable app market, according to a new report from Data.ai.

Brazil retained its place as the world’s fourth largest market for app adoption, with downloads rising from 10.3 billion to 10.6 billion compared to 2021. This places the country behind China, India and the United States. However, with over 110 billion downloads in China, this remains the world’s dominant market for app downloads.

Brazil remained the number two market for time spent in apps, with an average of 5.2 hours per day, representing a slight decrease from 5.3 hours in 2021. However, this strong result sees it maintain its place as one of only five countries with an average of more than five hours.

The report also found that Mexico similarly saw a 20% year-on-year increase in in-app spending, reaching $711 million, making it the #19 most valuable app market. The county is also seeing significant growth in terms of time spent in-app, which Data.ai reports could see Mexico joining the list countries with consumers spending an average of more than five hours per day in-app.

Shooting to success

Although 2022 was a corrective year for the market, with consumer spend in mobile gaming falling 5% globally, Latin America emerged comparatively healthy.

Data.ai attributes this health in part to growth in in-app games specific spending in both Brazil ($640 million, compared to $570 million in 2021) and Mexico ($350 million, compared to $320 million in 2021).

Both countries also saw modest increases in download numbers, with both Brazil and Mexico growing by around 160 million downloads year-on-year and reaching 4.62 billion and 2.42 billion, respectively. Shooting was the top earner across Brazil and Mexico, as well as Argentina, with spending in the genre increasing 24% year-on-year. The party genre is also cited as a strong performer, particularly in Brazil, where it rose 78% to become the country’s fifth largest genre, with Stumble Guys singled out as a particularly strong performer.

Recently, Tencent announced the upcoming release of Honor of Kings in Brazil.


Staff Writer

Lewis Rees is a journalist, author, and escape room enthusiast based in South Wales. He got his degree in Film and Video from the University of Glamorgan. He's been a gamer all his life.