Twitch's mobile app continued strong growth in early 2021 after a record 2020. In Q1 2021, it reached 22 million installs, up 62% from 13.6 million in Q1 2020. The pandemic drove surges in March 2020, and full-year 2020 installs hit 80.6 million, up 134% YoY.
The US remained the largest market with 17.6 million installs in 2020 (+91% YoY) and 5 million in Q1 2021 (+61%). India saw the most growth, with 2.2 million installs in 2020 (+588%) and 280,000 in Q1 2021 (+146%). Monthly active users on mobile also grew 69% from March 2020 to March 2021, indicating sustained user engagement even as the pandemic continues.
These trends highlight shifting consumer habits toward live streaming on mobile.
App Clips are lightweight iOS app extensions under 15MB for instant actions like ordering or paying without full installation. They reduce friction, use QR/NFC triggers, and support Apple Pay and Sign in with Apple.
Mobile shopping apps drive 3x higher conversion than mobile web. Granular measurement, deep linking, fraud protection, and re-engagement are key. Personalization and privacy compliance balance is crucial for success.
Global consumer app spending to reach $270B by 2025, driven by 19.5% CAGR. App Store leads with 21% CAGR, non-game apps to surpass games by 2024. Europe shows strong growth.
ROX measures financial impact of customer experiences on campaigns, focusing on contextualized, personalized, and frictionless CX to boost engagement and LTV.
SKAdNetwork reveals advertiser-publisher connections, showing Social and Gaming apps drive 92% of paid installs. Privacy thresholds cause conversion value nulls, impacting optimization. Advertisers must adapt campaign structures to overcome NOI decline and leverage limited data for LTV predictions.
Riot Games' mobile titles (Wild Rift, Legends of Runeterra, TFT) surpassed $100M in player spending. Wild Rift leads with $64.7M, followed by TFT ($27.5M) and Runeterra ($16.2M). Q2 2021 revenue hit $36.5M, up 50% from Q1. US accounts for 26% of spending, South Korea 22%, Brazil 6.5%. Google Play drives 59.4% of revenue. Downloads: Brazil 10%, South Korea 9.6%, US 8.3%. Riot plans to expand mobile, including Valorant.
In the U.S., the top 100 mobile games accounted for 64.4% of player spending in 2020, down from 2017 but revenue grew 35% YoY to $14.4B due to COVID-19. Lower tiers saw faster growth, increasing their share. Globally, top 100 games held 53.5% of spending, up slightly from 2019 but down from 2017. Top 10 worldwide grew 34% to $13.7B, with 17.2% share. The market is expanding for all tiers, especially outside the top 100 in the U.S.
AppsFlyer’s 2026 creative data shows video and static image ads reward opposite creative qualities, so ad ops teams should plan, budget, and test them separately. Video spend is concentrating: gaming’s top 2% of video creatives captured 60.7% of spend, up from 53.5%, while image spend spread out. Top spenders are testing far more variations, widening the testing gap. Action/Strategy and Puzzle/Lifestyle show format-specific tone and social-proof reversals; Finance is the exception. Teams should use AI-assisted variation, analyze video winners deeply, keep broad image testing, and measure performance at attribute level.
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Mobile finance is outpacing broader app trends: global finance app downloads are projected at 8.9B in 2026 (+6% YoY), wi...