Entertainment App Revenue on iOS Will Grow 235% to Reach $11.5 Billion by 2023, Led by Asia and North America

In this excerpt from our State of Entertainment Apps report, available exclusively to our enterprise customers, we’ll explore forecasted growth for entertainment app net revenue and downloads by region and platform. Projections are based on Sensor Tower’s Store Intelligence data.

Entertainment App Revenue 2023 Forecast by Region

The App Store will continue to be an important source of revenue for entertainment apps. Net revenue grew 785 percent from $389 million in 2015 to $3.4 billion in 2018. We project net revenue to reach $11.5 billion by 2023, representing 235 percent growth. Despite slowing download growth, entertainment app revenue will remain highest in North America and Asia. App Store net revenue will reach $4 billion in Asia and $2.5 billion in North America by 2023.

On Google Play, entertainment app revenue lags behind the App Store. Latin America net revenue will grow by more than 450 percent over the next five years, reaching $118 million in 2023. This will make the region the third largest for net entertainment app revenue on Google Play, after North America at $194 million and Asia at $152 million.

Entertainment App Downloads 2023 Forecast by Region

Latin America and Asia will drive download growth over the next five years. On the App Store, entertainment apps will have higher growth in Latin America than in North America. Entertainment app downloads will grow by 78 million in Latin America between 2018 and 2023, compared to growth of only 58 million downloads in North America over the same period. North America will be the third largest region for App Store entertainment downloads in 2023 behind Asia and Europe.

Meanwhile, Google Play entertainment app installs in Asia will almost double, reaching 4.5 billion in 2023. Latin America will also have strong growth, with downloads reaching 1.6 billion. In North America, entertainment app installs will only grow by 1 percent to 432 million in 2023.

Store Intelligence users can see app revenue and download estimates by countries in addition to historical performance metrics on the Sensor Tower platform. The estimates featured in this post include Worldwide net revenue and downloads for the App Store and Google Play between Jan. 1, 2018 and Dec. 31, 2018. Apple apps and Google pre-installed apps are excluded. We report unique installs only. Android estimates do not include third-party stores. Figures represent aggregate installs of all app versions, ex: Facebook and Facebook Lite.