Christmas Day was a boon for not just Apple, but Google as well, as device owners spent quite a bit of money in both company’s digital storefronts.
Sensor Tower has a breakdown of holiday sales for the end of 2019, specifically on Christmas Day, and it’s good news for both Apple and Google. However, the data reveals that customers continue to spend more money in Apple’s App Store when compared to Google’s Google Play storefront.
Sensor Tower reveals that customers spent upwards of $277 million on Christmas Day alone. When compared to the same day in 2018, that’s a year-over-year increase of 11.3 percent.
Consumer spending in apps and mobile games on Christmas accounted for about 5 percent of all revenue generated by the stores for the Month of December, which reached nearly $5.1 billion globally according to our estimates. This was 8 percent greater than the approximately $4.7 billion spent across both platforms during December 2018.
Sensor Tower’s data shows that the majority of purchases were made from the Games category, accounting for $210 million. PUBG Mobile apparently raked in $8.5 million all by itself. That’s an increase of 431% compared to the same day last year.
Non-game apps accounted for approximately 2 percent more of all spending this Christmas compared to a year prior, bringing in an estimated $67 million. This reflected Y/Y growth of about 24 percent from $54 million. Entertainment category apps, which include SVOD services such as Disney+ and Tencent Video, accounted for the largest portion of non-game spending—24 percent—on the App Store, while 16 percent of Google Play revenue outside of games came from that store’s top-earning category for the day, Social.
But it’s Apple’s App Store that led the way. The data reveals that the digital storefront accounted for 70 percent of spending between the two stores. It amassed $193 million in purchases on its own. Compare that to the $84 million spent in the Google Play store on the same day.
Globally, games are still the most popular category:
As seen with global spending, games generated the majority of U.S. app revenue on Christmas at 73 percent, but the total of $58 million grew a more modest 2 percent Y/Y from $57 million, compared to about 8 percent worldwide. Non-game app spending in the U.S. grew about 13 percent Y/Y to $22 million, compared to global growth of 24 percent.
Sensor Tower says that the boost in numbers was spurred by “new device sales, first-time mobile users, and consumers flush with gift card credit”, so did you fall into a category this holiday season? If so, which app(s) or games did you buy on Christmas Day?