The downloads from the US App Store have surpassed China’s downloads for the first time since 2014 – a new milestone. According to data from Q2 2020 report of the sensor towerThe US App Store grew 27.4% yoy in the quarter today, compared to 2.1% in the China App Store. During the quarter, the US App Store generated 2.22 billion new installations compared to 2.06 billion downloads in China to regain the top position. This then led to the USA also defeating China in consumer spending in the App Store.
The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on both China and the United States contributed to the shift
The US outperformed China in installations that started in April and continued through June.
China was hit by an unusually high number of downloads in March and April in the second quarter due to COVID-19. But when the download numbers started to normalize, the pandemic in the US, where it occurred a little later, caused chaos.
This caused the U.S. to see an increase in downloads as the population was suddenly forced to work from home, go to school from home, and chat with apps, games, and streaming services at home.
Credit: Sensor tower
The Sensor Tower tells ProWellTech that the U.S. business and education apps grew particularly rapidly in the second quarter as a result. These categories made the greatest contribution to the United States surpassing China’s installations.
Business application downloads increased 133.3% in the second quarter, followed by education (84.4%), health and fitness (57.7%), news (44.9%) and social networks (42.4%) .
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The video conferencing app Zoom in particular had a breakout quarter and even broke the record for App Store installations with a total of almost 94 million downloads in a single quarter. The previous record was set by TikTok, which had downloaded 67 million downloads in one quarter in the first quarter of 2020. No other non-game app has ever exceeded 50 million installations in a quarter, according to Sensor Tower.
TikTok still had a strong second quarter with almost 71 million app store downloads in the quarter, up 154% year over year. The two main download markets were both the United States and China – the latter is known as Douyin.
Credit: Sensor tower
Mobile gaming was also a huge success in the U.S. because people stayed at home under state locks. Top mobile games from App Store downloads included titles like Save The Girl, Roblox, Go Knots 3D, Münzmeister, Tangle Master 3D, Fishdom, ASMR-cutting, Call of Duty: Mobile and others.
On this front, Roblox had an outstanding quarter when the kids stayed at home and played online because they were separated from school and their playmates in real life. Roblox’s gaming app rose from 11th in the United States in the first quarter of 2020 to 2nd in the second quarter, reaching a new high of 8.6 million downloads in the quarter.
Rollic Games had two hits in the quarter, Go Knots 3D and Tangle Master 3D, each with over 5 million app store downloads. The Repair Master 3D title also took 20th place.
Both Zoom and Rollic Games were the only new top publishers to be in the top 10 in the App Store in the second quarter.
Credit: Sensor tower
Although the US outperformed China in the quarter for the first time in years, the remaining top 5 – Japan, the UK, and Russia – remained the same as in the previous quarter, although they grew year-over-year.
In connection with the increase in new downloads, the United States outperformed China in consumer spending on the App Store for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2018 – but only by 1.6% (around $ 53 million). In the second quarter of 2020, the US outperformed China by 14%, or about $ 717 million.
The US saw a more significant 20% increase in spending between the first and second quarters of the first quarter during the COVID-19 outbreak. In China, App Store consumer spending growth was only 5% between Q4 2019 and Q1 2020 when the full impact of the virus was felt.