Entertainment App Market in 2023: Top Apps & Trends
This story originally appeared on the MAF blog.
Want to get the inside scoop on the entertainment app market?
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From Netflix to TikTok, entertainment apps are battling for the attention of users across the globe.
Who is winning this battle?
In this overview, we’re bringing the most relevant entertainment app statistics that reflect the major trends and state of the entertainment app market.
Let’s begin!
Ten Years of Entertainment Apps
The entertainment app market is especially interesting from the perspective of time.
Over the past ten years, many apps dominated the entertainment charts, but only a few made history.
In 2013, the list of most-downloaded apps was significantly different from today. Back then, the top three positions were held by YouTube, Shazam, and Tango Live. YouTube remained on the top for years until Q2 2019 when TikTok conquered the download charts.
By Q4 2022, TikTok has gotten over 3.5 billion cumulative downloads, making it the most downloaded entertainment app of all time. YouTube and Spotify are currently in the 2nd and 3rd positions with approximately 1.7 billion downloads each.
When it comes to consumer spend, things have drastically changed since 2013.
In Q1 2013, the top entertainment apps by cumulative consumer spend were Pandora Music, GREE, and GarageBand. Spotify dominated the download charts from 2016 to 2017, while the Netflix era lasted from 2018 to 2021.
Up to date, TikTok surpassed all these apps with an astonishing $6.2 billion in cumulative consumer spend (data.ai)
Top Entertainment App Genres by Downloads
To really understand the entertainment app market, it’s important to understand how many different apps fall under the “entertainment” umbrella.
The entertainment app category includes:
- OTT (over-the-top) apps
- Short-form video apps
- Music & audio apps
- Game services
- Live streaming apps
- eBooks
- Comic apps
- Radio apps, etc.
OTT has been a buzzword for a couple of years now. To define, OTT (over-the-top) refers to tech that delivers streamed content via the internet (think Netflix and HBO Max).
Among entertainment apps, OTT and short-form video apps stand out as the most popular categories, accounting for the largest download share in the entertainment app market (data.ai).
Both of these genres gained significant traction during the 2020 pandemic.
In 2020 alone, the apps from the short-form video genre were downloaded 1.98B times. The following year, their popularity slightly decreased, while other entertainment genres like OTT and Music & Audio experienced growth.
Top Entertainment App Genres by Consumer Spend
When it comes to consumer spending, the OTT genre stands out with its unmatched dominance.
In 2021, users spent a staggering $6.53 billion on apps from the OTT genre. Live streaming and short-form video apps came in second and third, with consumer spending of 2.07 billion and 1.97 billion, respectively (data.ai).
As you can see, the reign of OTT apps began in 2020, solidified in 2021, and they continue to dominate today’s entertainment app market.
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What’s next in the article 👇
Top 10 Entertainment Apps of 2023
How Top Entertainment Apps Monetize
How People Use Entertainment Apps (Behavior, Retention Rates)
Top Apps by Age Group & More
