Turnover drops from 2.45 to 2.2 billion euros within a year – in-app purchases remain dominant in the mar

Around 2.2 billion euros will be generated with apps for smartphones and tablets in 2023 – a decline of 20 percent compared to 2022, when it was around 2.45 billion euros. Nevertheless, this figure is 37 per cent higher than in the pre-Corona year 2019, when 1.61 billion euros were generated with smartphone and tablet apps. This is shown in an analysis by the digital association BITKOM (https://bitkom.org) based on data from the market research institute research2guidance.

Non-free apps niche

In the record year 2021, sales of 3.06 billion euros were achieved. The majority of revenues are still generated with in-app purchases: 72 per cent of revenues (around 1.58 billion euros) are accounted for by additional content or features that many apps provide against payment – streaming subscriptions are excluded from these figures.

23 per cent or 518 million euros are generated by advertising within the apps. Apps that are completely paid for are of rather minor importance: they account for only five per cent of the total market, the corresponding revenues amount to 103 million euros, according to the data analysis presented today, Monday.

Android leads unchallenged

“After the record high of the Corona years, spending is declining, but remains well above the years before the pandemic,” BITKOM chief executive Bernhard Rohleder said. In 2023, 2.29 billion apps are expected to be downloaded in Germany. In 2022, there were 2.46 billion downloads and 2.15 billion in the pre-Corona year 2019.

Around 70 per cent of downloads are currently on the Android operating system, 30 per cent on iOS. For 2024, the Berlin-based industry association expects sales to stabilise from the current 2.2 billion euros to 2.24 billion euros. Rohleder concludes: “We expect the app market to develop positively in the long term.