The App Store grabs over 68% of global app revenue on Christmas day

According to preliminary data from app research firm Sensor Tower, $407.6 million was spent globally this past Christmas on apps purchased from the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. That number represents a 34.5% year-over-year gain from the $303 million that was spent on apps during Christmas day in 2019. Mobile games made up the majority of app spending on December 25th; that figure was $295.6 million, up 27% from the $232.4 million spent on games during last year's Christmas day. Money spent on non-game apps on Christmas day rose 59% year-over-year from $70.5 million last year to $112 million this year.

Once again, Apple's App Store received the bulk of the money spent on apps globally this past Christmas Day. Sensor Tower shows that $278.6 million, or 68.4% of the total, was spent in the App Store compared to the $129 million in revenue that was collected by the Google Play Store. Those numbers indicate a 35.2% year-over-year increase and a better than 33% annual increase for the App Store and the Google Play Store respectively. In the U.S., consumers spent a total of $130 million in both app stores this Christmas, a gain of 38.7% over last year's $93.7 million.

Just as mobile games led the way in global app purchases on Christmas day (with Tencent's Honor of Kings topping the category after ringing up $10.7 million in revenue), Games also were the most popular apps in the states on December 25th led by Roblox. The most popular consumer app worldwide on Christmas was short-form video app TikTok. Owned by China's ByteDance, the popular app took in $4.7 million on Christmas.

This year has been a record setting one for apps and games as more than $100 billion has been spent in app stores around the world for the first time ever. Even though Android handsets own approximately 85% of the global phone market, the App Store traditionally collects more more revenue than the Google Play Store.