The State of Sports Apps Report: Top Sports Apps by Revenue and Growth Forecast

This week we’ll be sharing excerpts from our newly released State of Sports Apps Report. We’re kicking off with worldwide sports apps revenue and our forecast for revenue growth by App Store. App revenue estimates are from Sensor Tower’s Store Intelligence platform.

Worldwide Sports Revenue Trends from Q1 2016 to Q2 2019

Sports category net revenue growth accelerated in 2017 and 2018, and growth remained strong into 2019. Sports apps will look to surpass $100 million in net revenue in Q3 2019. Google Play Sports app revenue grew even faster than the App Store’s. Sports app revenue on Google Play nearly doubled year-over-year to $23.7 million in Q2 2019. Despite this, the App Store still represented 74 percent of Sports app revenue between the two stores in the quarter.

DAZN was the top app by revenue in 1H2019, climbing up one position from 2018. ESPN climbed five positions from last year to No. 2 in 1H2019 for worldwide revenue, followed by MLB At Bat, NBA, and onX Hunt.

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

App Store Sports app revenue grew 70 percent between 2017 and 2018. This growth rate is expected to slow to a still-substantial 23 percent CAGR over the next five years, with net revenue reaching $520 million by 2023. Net revenue is on track to surpass $250 million in 2019 (sports apps grossed nearly $125 million in the first half of 2019).

Sports app revenue on Google Play is expected to have a similar CAGR as the App Store at 22 percent to $151 million by 2023. However, this reflects lower revenue growth per download given higher forecasted download growth for Google Play than the App Store. Google Play Sports revenue is projected to grow 45 percent Y/Y in 2019. This is less than the 78 percent Y/Y growth seen in 2018.

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 revenue estimates for the above apps in addition to historical performance metrics on the Sensor Tower platform. Our revenue estimates are from the App Store and Google Play worldwide between January 1, 2015 and June 31, 2019, and include daily net revenue totals. We report revenue earned by the publishers (excluding the cut for Apple and Google). Apple apps and Google pre-installed apps are excluded. Android estimates do not include third-party stores.