Global Sports Apps Downloads Surpassed 250 Million Last Quarter

In this second excerpt from our newly released State of Sports Apps report, we focus on worldwide sports apps download trends and forecasts based on data from Sensor Tower’s Store Intelligence platform.

Worldwide Sports Apps Download Trends from Q1 2016 to Q2 2019

Worldwide Sports category downloads surpassed 200 million for the fifth consecutive quarter in Q2 2019. The 254 million installs in the quarter reflected a 50 percent increase over Q2 2016. The large spike in Sports downloads in Q2 2018 (61 percent year-over-year growth) was driven by the 2018 World Cup (soccer) as well as the India Premier League (cricket). Top apps in the quarter included FIFA, Telemundo Deportes, and Cricbuzz.

Cricbuzz was the top sports app by downloads in the first half of 2019, followed by FUT 19, which climbed four positions from 2018 to No. 2 in 1H2019 for worldwide downloads, DAZN, Onefootball, and IPL 2019. Both DAZN and IPL 2019 were new to the top sports apps ranking by downloads.

Market Download Forecast for the Sports Category for the App Store and Google Play

Sports category downloads on Apple’s App Store are projected to reach 370 million by 2023 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.9 percent. Following the World Cup in 2018, downloads are expected to fall slightly in 2019 before growing steadily throughout the next four years. Sports apps had 56 million installs on iOS during June 2018 compared to just 22 million in June 2019.

Sports apps on Google Play will reach nearly one billion downloads by 2023. This is a CAGR of 10.5 percent from the 604 million downloads in 2018. Downloads in countries such as India and Pakistan will continue to grow in 2019. These countries make up a much larger share of downloads on Google Play than the App Store.

Interested in seeing additional sports apps insights? Download a free copy of our State of Sports Apps report below:

Sensor Tower's Store Intelligence platform is an Enterprise level offering. Store Intelligence users can see app download estimates for the above apps in addition to historical performance metrics on the Sensor Tower platform. Our download estimates are from the App Store and Google Play worldwide between January 1, 2015 and June 31, 2019, and include daily download totals. Apple apps and Google pre-installed apps are excluded. Android estimates do not include third-party stores.