State of the Market 2023

Feb, 2024 44State of the Market 2023
an annual analysis of app market and advertising
activities

44Methodology
The purpose of this study is to analyse the state of app market and advertising activities in 2023.

All data presented in this report has been collected from Apptica platform.

Apps’ categories are defined by a store’s tag.

The basis of this analysis is made up of data from the Apptica’s Store, Ad and Market Intelligence sections.

We collect data only from App Store and Google Play, we do not cover other alternative stores.

To obtain accurate results, we have analysed data on 37 countries collected from January 1 to December 31, 2023.

We have not used additional information from other analytical services or resources without mentioning them.

Revenue figures are based on IAP figures, we do not cover other revenue sources. All Revenue is calculated in USD $.

Retention section is still under development and in beta stage. The figures indicated might undergo some changes and
slightly differ once Usage Intelligence is released.

In advertising section we have analysed only unique creatives, excluding copies of all sorts.

44State of Market
Maor Sadra

CEO & Co-Founder
2024 will be the final nail in the user level attribution coffin. Apple is set to

enforce the ”Privacy Manifest” in 2024, ushering in an era where fingerprinting

user clicks and matching them with conversions becomes a thing of the past.

Google will follow suit, deploying the privacy sandbox across Web and Android

platforms. This move will make non-Google ad platforms struggle with less

accurate targeting data, reshaping the digital marketing landscape.

42023Total: >31BTop-15 markets | Downloads 2023Total: >162B
There is a drop (-2,4%) YoY of downloads
with the leaders at the same positions:
India (+10,4%), Brazil (+8,3%), United States
(-5,1%).

5Total: >193B.
Overall, the market demonstrates a slight
decline (-3,6%) YoY of downloads.

India (+10,3%), Brazil (+8,1%), United States
(-0,7%) are the top-3 markets.

Russia (+11,2%), China (+10,9%), Pakistan
(+12%), Germany (+6,4%), Japan (+2,7%),
UK (+8%) enjoy growth while Indonesia
(-2%), Mexico (-18,5%), Turkey (-4,8%),
France (-1%) suffer a drop.

Egypt, Argentina get into ranking in 2023.
replacing Thailand and Spain.

Android covers 84% of all installs WW.

2023Top-15 markets | Downloads

6Total: >$107B.
US, China and Japan keep the first 3 positions
covering 58% of the total spend.

In total, 2 platforms combined lost 1% of
revenue YoY.

Hong Kong, Australia, Vietnam join the top-
ranking this year.

South Korea enjoys the biggest growth of
22%.

iOS cover 67% of all spend.

2023

7DownloadsRevenueTop verticals on iOS Downloads:
The Top-12 categories remain
their positions. The shifts take place at
the end of the ranking with Simulation
replacing Food&Drink category in 2023.

Aggregated, gaming takes the lead with
6.3B of downloads in total.

All verticals suffer a slight decline of
downloads YoY.
Revenue:
Gaming, Entertainment and
Photo&Video are the grossing leaders.

However, Photo&Video is the only vertical
in the ranking that has generated more
installs YoY (+3,26%). Gaming and
Entertainment have declined by 6,7% and
8,45% correspondingly.

8DownloadsTop verticals on AndroidRevenueRevenue:
Gaming, Entertainment and
Social are the grossing leaders covering
78% of a total spend.
Downloads:
In total, there is a slight
decline of 2% in aggregated installs.

In non-gaming niche, communication
(+1,7%), productivity (+9,4%), finance
(+1,4%) have a positive trend.

Social suffer the biggest drop of 8,3%.

Gaming takes the lead with >51B of
downloads in total, that is less by 2% than
in 2022.

9DownloadsRevenueTop verticals | Platforms combined
Gaming, Entertainment and
Social keep being the grossing leaders
compared to 2022 despite a drop in
revenue YoY.
Downloads:
All the leaders remain their
positions with minor shifts at the middle
and at the end of the ranking.

Simulation outperforms Social pushing it
to the 8th position. Puzzle takes the 10th
position, winning 3 ranks compared to
2022.

Gaming is the top vertical with 58,51B of
downloads in total.

In non-gaming niche Tools (-1,47%),
Photography (-3%), Shopping (-4,8%),
Travel and local (-2,6%), Music and audio
(-5,1%), Video players (-5%) demonstrate a
decline. Social dropped the most (-8,3%).

10The total is >$35B.RevenueGaming subgenres on iOS The total is >6BDownloads

11
Casual, Action and Simulation are the
leaders in terms of downloads. Casual
(+0,27%) outperformed Action (-4,3%)
compared to 2022.

Simulation (+5%), Puzzle (+5,25%),
Sports(+1%), Board (+4%), Card (+4,8%)
show an upward trend.

Action (-4,3%), Arcade (-10%), Racing (-5%),
Educational (-0,7%), Strategy (-8%), RPG
(-12%), Music (-5%) experience a decline
with Adventure demonstrating the
biggest negative trend (-17%).

Gaming subgenres on AndroidThe total is >$20B.The total is >51B.
RPG takes the first place (despite
negative trend) followed by Strategy
and Casual. The ranking remains
almost the same with Puzzle getting
to the 4th place leaving Action behind.

412
As India is the biggest market for
downloads, it takes the biggest share in
top verticals.
US covers the largest share in the majority of
the verticals. Japan keeps its position as a
grossing leader in Simulation (26,2%), RPG
(30,1%), while China outperforms US in Action
(27,3%) and Entertainment (32,65). More than a
half and almost a half (49,9%) of all revenue in
Casino and H&F are coming from the USA.
DownloadsRevenue

Retention. Non-gaming verticals 13010203040
UtilitiesLifestyleBusinessEducationEntertainmentShoppingSocialFinanceF&D
Entertainment
R1R30
The R1 leaders on Android and
iOS are Dating (30,52%) and
Finance (32,3%) correspondingly.

Finance (9.6% Android, 12,7% iOS)
has the highest R30 on both
platforms.

iOS has the higher R1 among the
indicated verticals except Utilities
(21,54% Android vs 21% iOS).

Business (6.87%) and Utilities
(5.8%) demonstrate a bit higher
R30 on Android. 010203040
UtilitiesLifestyleBusinessShoppingSocialFinanceF&D

Retention. Gaming 14010203040
ActionCasino PRGCasualWordStrategyRacing
010203040
ActionCasino PRGCasualWordStrategyRacing
The R1 leaders on Android and
iOS are Casual (31%) and Casino
(40,6%) correspondingly.

Casino (9.1% Android, 13,6% iOS)
has the highest R30 on both
platforms.

iOS has the higher R1, R30, an
average benchmark among the
indicated sub-genres than
Android.

Average R1 in gaming: 32,4

Average R30 in gaming: 6,6

R1R30

Royal Match42,8 M3.195 M3.160,8 M5. Top games | Downloads
15DownloadsiOSAndroidDownloads蛋仔派对45,9 M1. MONOPOLY GO!44,2 M2. Free Fire MAX133,3 M6. My Talking Tom 2123,7 M7. Block Blast!122,3 M8. My Talking Tom Friends 110,2 M9. 8 Ball Pool109,2 M10.

Roblox398 M349,7 M326 MiOSAndroidRevenue王者荣耀1,5 B1. 和平精英611,5 M2. MONOPOLY GO!609 M3.

Telegram Messenger81 M493,7 M3.TikTok Lite273 M5. Top social | Downloads
17DownloadsiOSAndroidDownloadsInstagram111,7 M1. WhatsApp Messenger106,5 M2. Facebook Lite369,6 M 4. Instagram Lite149,5 M6. X123,7 M7. XClub114,3 M8. Bigo Live – Live Streaming App86,7 M9. Threads, an Instagram app80,6 M10.

Hinge Dating App: Match & Date134,3 M3.Grindr – Gay Dating & Chat117,3 M5.Grindr – Gay chat45 M3.Chamet – Live Video Chat&Meet43,7 M5. Top social | Revenue
18RevenueiOSAndroidRevenueTinder: Dating, Chat & Friends584,8 M1. Bumble: Dating & Friends App244,6 M2. BOSS直聘-招聘求职找工作神器130,9 M4. LINE110 M6. BIGO LIVE-Live Stream, Go Live99,9 M7. Snapchat98,7 M8. Life360: Find Friends & Family86,9 M9. Instagram84,2 M10. TikTok628,9 M1. Bigo Live – Live Streaming App69,2 M2. Pococha – Chat, Live streaming44,2 M4. Facebook41,8 M6. Tango- Live Stream, Video Chat27,7 M7. Who – Live Video Chat24,7 M8. Poppo live18,3 M9. Instagram16,8 M10.

Photomath13,3 M3.作业帮-中小学家长作业检查和辅导工具12,9 M5.Photomath28,5 M3.Unacademy: Learn & Crack Exams14,9 M5. Top education | Downloads
19DownloadsiOSAndroidDownloadsDuolingo: Language Lessons38 M1. 学信网18 M2. 驾考宝典-科一科四驾驶证考试驾考通13 M4. 智慧中小学-国家中小学智慧教育平台11 M6. Google Classroom11 M7. 学习通10,3 M8. 百度文库-AI专业文档总结报告资料库
10,1 M9. 学习强国9,9 M10. Duolingo: Language Lessons119,6 M 1. Brainly: AI Homework Helper39,8 M2. Google Classroom26,7 M 4. Bible App for Kids13,6 M6. Buddy.ai: Fun Learning Games12,5 M7. OckyPocky : English For Kids10,7 M8. Superbook Kids Bible App9,7 M9. Minecraft Education9,5 M10.

Babbel – Language Learning28,7 M11,8 M3.ClassDojo7,6 M5. Top education | Revenue
20RevenueiOSAndroidRevenueDuolingo: Language Lessons193,7 M1. PictureThis – Plant Identifier66,9 M2. Udemy – Online Courses9,3 M4. Headway: 15-Min Book Summaries7 M6. 말해보카: 영단어, 문법, 리스닝, 스피킹, 영어 공부5,2 M7. Blinkist: Book Summaries Daily5 M8. Simply Piano: Learn Piano Fast3,7 M9. Learn 33 Languages – Mondly3,3 M10.

小红书 – 你的生活指南56,3 M3.36,8 MDow nloadsTemu: Shop Like a Billionaire90,5 M1. SHEIN-Shopping Online62,7 M2.

360借条-手机借钱小额借款分期贷款软件32 M3.中国农业银行22,7 MiOSAndroidAlipay – Simplify Your Life44 M1. PayPal – Send, Shop, Manage33 M2. 个人所得税22,8 M4.

Invoice2go: Easy Invoice Maker12 M3.11,6 M5.マネーフォワード ME 3.2,3 M5. Top finance | Revenue
23RevenueiOSAndroidRevenueQuickBooks Self-Employed25,2 М1. QuickBooks Accounting23,4 M2. マネーフォワード ME
– 人気の家計簿(かけい
ぼ)
10,6 M6. MileIQ: Mileage Tracker & Log7. GardenFinanzguru – Konten &
Verträgescapes
8. 確定申告はfreee 会計ソフト – 会計
アプリで青色申告

3,5 M9. Rocket Money – Bills & Budgets2,4 M10. TradingView: Track All Markets1. QuickBooks Self-Employed5,5 M2. Mileage Tracker & Log – MileIQ6. Finanzguru – Konten & Verträge2 M7. Serasa: Consulta CPF e Score1, 7 M8. Rocket Money – Bills & Budgets1,7 M9. SA Stock Market Analysis, Data1 M10.

Keep – 自由运动场11,6 M3.AndroidDownloadsImpulse – Brain Training21,9 M1. Flo Period & Pregnancy Tracker14 M2.

Strava: Run, Bike, Hike74,6 M3.Fitbit: Health & Fitness49,5 M5.Strava: Run, Bike, Hike19,2 M3.Calm – Sleep, Meditate, Relax11 M5. Top H&F applications | Revenue
25RevenueiOSAndroidRevenueMyFitnessPal: Calorie Counter111 M1. Flo Period & Pregnancy Tracker81 M2. Calm65,9 M4. WeightWatchers: Weight Health44,9 M6. Impulse – Brain Training42,6 M7. GameChanger42,5 M8. Peloton: Fitness & Workouts42 M9. Headspace: Sleep & Meditation40,9 M10. Fitbit52,8 M 1. MyFitnessPal: Calorie Counter27,5 M2. Flo Period & Pregnancy Tracker13 M 4. AllTrails: Hike, Bike & Run10,6 M6. YAZIO Food & Calorie Counter9 M7. Headspace: Sleep & Meditation9 M8. Replika: My AI Friend8,5 M9. komoot – hike, bike & run8,2 M10.

44State of Advertising
Lorenzo Rossi
Co-Founder
The mobile industry is currently experiencing a lot of uncertainty and instability
due to continuous changes, especially in the area of tracking and privacy. This
has made it increasingly difficult to achieve efficiency with our paid acquisition
activities. However, we have a great opportunity to focus on the creative side of
things. Thanks to the synergy between video dominance and AI-tools, we can
enhance the production process and analyze vast amounts of data. This will
enable us to create highly targeted and personalized video content.

Top advertisers | distribution share*
27*distribution share: the share of advertising impressions among all advertisers for the chosen period
There are 109,8K advertisers in total.

Gaming vertical is a leader with 53% of advertisers.

The most active are coming from gaming, social and dating niches.
Total number of advertisers:

69,5KTotal number of advertisers:

40,3K
AndroidiOSiOS advertisers cover 37% of traffic

Top advertisers | creatives’ number
287,2Average number of creatives777KMaximum number of creativesiOS
Total number of advertisers:

69,5KTotal number of advertisers:

40,3K
Average number of networksAverage number of creatives1,8MMaximum number of creativesAverage number of networks

29iOS
The most active publishers pertain to gaming vertical, joined by social, shopping.

Total: 67,8K
Top publishers | buying share
Total number of publishers:

42,9KTotal number of publishers:

24,9K
Android2022-14%Number of publishers

Advertising traffic by gaming categoryPuzzle 16,9% Casual 8,3% Adventure 7,3% Strategy
The gaming led with more than and . The biggest traffic
share on both platforms together is covered by Puzzle and Casual. On Android Puzzle takes 1/4 of all ad gaming traffic.
78,6% of advertising traffic on App Store 52,5% on Google Play Puzzle 26,8% 10% Casino 8% Word 7,7% Other 27,9% 30Other 46,9%

31
1% creative score (top-perfoming creatives):
105K (0,8% of total)

The more we spend on a project, the more resources we allocate to the promo department for
coming up with new concepts of creatives and generating additional variations of the existing
ones. In our case, conscious elaboration of hypotheses and operation with performing
elements have proved to be more effective than creative searching and trying spontaneous
options. With the appearance of custom landing pages, the winning creative search has
become even more tricky, but at the same time, there are more tactical options available now.
In fact, winning creatives can run in campaigns for quite a long time (several months or even
up to a year instead of 30 days). The positive point is that part of the workload can be allocated
to AI services, which are now getting better and better.
Kirill Zhukovsky

Chief Product Officer
playablesvideo staticCreative cycle and format on iOS running period of creatives (days) 76%18,5%5,5% 1-3 da ys
52,4%4,6%27,4%

32
Total number of creatives:
30,3 mln

2%23%Creative cycle and format on Android
Video share keeps growing both on iOS (+16%) & Android (+37%). Interactive format shows a positive
dynamics on iOS (+2,7%) and a negative one on Android (-0.5%).

Android remains the more saturated platform with creatives (71%) despite a growing share of iOS
creatives (+9,2%). In general, there have been much more creatives in rotation in 2023.
More than a half of all creatives are dropped within the first 3 days, more than 1/5 are dropped within a
week. Only 4,6%of creatives (on iOS) and 3,9$ (on Android) run for more than a month.

33
Popularity of miss-leading creatives is fading

UGC is a great channel that caters to authenticity trend, such creatives are gaining popularity outside TikTok network

Successful blend of UGC + Influencers that helps with a targeting in our pro-privacy industry

Gaming vertical is a trend-setter, applications borrow the elements and performing mechanics from games. In general,
there is an expanding trend of gamified ads

For 2024 we expect more creatives powered by AI and more tests with hybrid formats (video + playable endcard, UGC
video + playable part)
In 2024, we will see more and more experimentation with hybrid formats and visual
techniques as advertisers chase performance. It will be crucial for publishers to find
the perfect creative mix that is channel-specific; the one-size-fits-all mindset will no
longer cut it.

UGC is no longer just a bit-part player in a publisher’s creative strategy; for many, it
is THE creative strategy. However, due to an oversaturated marketplace of creators,
audiences have become more and more savvy about some of the tricks that made
content feel authentic before. It will require a lot of testing and experimentation to
unlock UGC’s full potential.

341202The state of in-app ad monetization on Android
The top-10 apps with the biggest share of in-app ad
The average number of network(s)The average number of creatives Average number of advertisers1
Ad formats and placements should align
with the app nature, and sometimes with its
genre. E.g., within games —hypercasual and
casual mobile games benefit from a mix of
banners, native, interstitials, and rewarded
videos, strategically placed to avoid
disrupting engagement. Mid-core and hard-
core games lean towards rewarded or in-
game ads, testing banners cautiously.
Utilizing first-party data enhances ad
relevance. In an ID-less and cookieless world,
solutions that offer real-time delivery and
privacy-first targeting become crucial.
Stafaniya Radzivonik

Director, Supply Partnerships EMEA, Smaato

(Now part of Verve Group)

35
The top-10 apps with the biggest share of in-app ad
1250The average number of network(s)The average number of creatives Average number of advertisers2The state of in-app ad monetization on iOS
Apps on iOS have a more complex strategy of in-app ad monetization with more networks integrated, more
advertisers bidding for the placements and more creatives running through them.

Top-ranking is covered mainly by gaming apps.

44Key Takeaways

44Key Takeaways
On iOS there is a drop (-10%) YoY of downloads with the leaders US and China remaining the same and
demonstrating a growth: US (+6,75%) and China (+2,5%). The top-15 ranking is joined by Mexico and Egypt this year,
replacing Thailand and Vietnam. All top GEOs enjoy growth except Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
As for the downloads distribution among the categories all leaders remain their positions with minor shifts.
Simulation outperforms Social pushing it to the 8th position. Puzzle takes the 10th position, winning 3 ranks
compared to 2022. Gaming is the top vertical with 58,51B of downloads in total.

In non-gaming niche Tools (-1,47%), Photography (-3%), Shopping (-4,8%), Travel and local (-2,6%), Music and audio
(-5,1%), Video players (-5%) demonstrate a decline. Social dropped the most (-8,3%).

In terms of the revenue: Gaming, Entertainment and Social keep being the grossing leaders compared to 2022
despite a drop in revenue YoY.
37
Overall, the market demonstrates a slight decline (-3,6%) Yo Y of downloads. India (+10,3%), Brazil (+8,1%), United States
(-0,7%) are the top-3 markets. Russia (+11,2%), China (+10, 9%), Pakistan (+12%), Germany (+6,4%), Japan (+2,7%), U K (+8%)
enjoy growth while Indonesia (-2%), Mexico (-18,5%), Turkey (-4,8%), France (-1%) suffer a drop. Egypt, Argentina get
into ranking in 2023, replacing Thailand and Spain. Android covers 8 4% of all installs WW.

For both platforms combined US, China and Japan keep the first 3 positions covering 58% of the total spend. In
total, market lost 1% of reven ue Yo Y . H ong Kong, Australia, Vietnam join the top-ranking this year. South Korea enjoys
the biggest growth of 22%. iOS cover 67% of all spend .

RPG demonstrates a gradual decline in the past two years, with revenue falling by 12% of total share. However,
RPG still ranks as the top-grossing genre. All other genres demonstrate a negative revenue trend as well.

In general, gaming lost a revenue share of 6.7% YoY.

Analyzing retention benchmarks of non-gaming apps: The R1 leaders on Android and i OS are Dating (30,52%) and
F inance (32,3%) correspondingly. Finance ( 9.6 % Android, 12,7% i OS) has the highest R30 on both platforms.

i O S has the higher R1 among the indicated verticals except Utilities (21,54% Android vs 21% i OS). Business ( 6.87%) and
U tilities (5.8%) demonstrate a higher R30 on Android.Key Takeaways38
Taking a closer look at the gaming on iOS: Casual, Action and Simulation take top-3 position in an install
ranking. All sub-genres suffer a decline of downloads YoY, in general, losing a share of 9.75%.As for the revenue, RPG takes the first place followed by Strategy and Casual. The ranking remains almost the same with
Puzzle getting to the 4th place leaving Action behind.

Key Takeaways39
The most active advertisers are coming from gaming, social and dating niches. Gaming vertical is a leader with 53% of
advertisers. There is a 8,5% drop of advertisers’ number YoY.

Android advertisers cover 63% of traffic.

The most active publishers pertain to gaming vertical, joined by social, shopping. There is a 14% decline in publishers’
number running ad campaigns.
The gaming led with more than 78,6% of advertising traffic on App Store and 52,5% on Google Play. The biggest
traffic share on both platforms together is covered by Puzzle and Casual. On Android Puzzle takes 1/4 of all ad
gaming traffic.
Video share keeps growing both on iOS (+16%) & Android (+37%). Interactive format shows a positive dynamics on iOS
(+2,7%) and a negative one on Android (-0.5%).

Android remains the more saturated platform with creatives (71%) despite a growing share of iOS creatives (+9,2%). In
general, there have been much more creatives in rotation in 2023.
More than a half of all creatives are dropped within the first 3 days, more than 1/5 are dropped within a week. Only
4 ,6%of creatives (on iOS) and 3, 9% (on Android) r un for more than a month. Apps on iOS have a more comple x strategy of in -app ad moneti zation with more networks integrated, more
advertisers bidding for the placements and more creatives running through them.

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