Thirty-two percent of the most popular Android apps are games and casual games are the most popular subset at 28 percent, according to Beijing-based start-up APUS. The firm developed its Global Mobile Application Analysis Report by looking within the user data from its own apps as well as data from Google Play.
- Besides games, communications apps also ranked high in popularity at 19 percent, followed by tools/utility apps at 13 percent and social networking apps at 11 percent.
- The percentage of casual games ranked in Google Play lists increased from 26 percent in January to 44 percent in February.
- Action games, which accounted for 16 percent of total rankings in January, dropped to 5 percent of rankings a month later.
- Samsung dominates the Android device market, reaching market penetration levels of 47 percent. In addition, the top 10 mobile devices by users are all Samsung brands.
- Facebook was the lead Android app in terms of popularity on a monthly basis.
"Software apps not only see more mentions in various lists, but also see a greater number of downloads than do games apps" the report said. "Games have a short life cycle and it is tough for any one game to fulfill the wide variety of tastes of gamers in general. In contrast, software such as Facebook and WhatsApp Messenger fulfill users' needs for socializing and communication, and are thus able to maintain large user bases as well as a longer life cycle."
There may not be a ton of surprises in the APUS report, but if nothing else it confirms some of the assumptions developers may have about what's on the rise within the Android app market. There are also some interesting country-by-country comparisons in the research: Shopping apps are big in China, for instance, whereas British developers are probably better off focusing on video and entertainment apps. There's also some worthwhile reporting on how quickly the "hot" mobile games rise and fall on the Google Play charts, showing just how fickle consumers can be.
For more:
- get the full report here
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