Meesho, MX Player to Free Fire, Best Apps in India for 2021: App Annie Report

App Annie’s “State of Mobile” 2021 looked at various categories of apps, downloads, consumer spending for consumers around the world and in India, on their mobile phones. Here is an overview of the main points of the report, including the main applications in India, across all categories.

Gaming apps in India

Global hit games such as Roblox and Genshin Impact saw further growth in 2021 with increased consumer spending. In India, consumer spending on mobile games also increased to reach $ 0.17 billion, which is a significant increase from $ 0.4 billion in 2020. Mobile game downloads in India also increased increased significantly to $ 9.33 billion in total.

The games that saw increased consumer spending in India were Top War: Battle Game, followed by Genshin Impact, Evony, and Match Masters. The game with breakout downloads around the country was “Bridge Race,” which was also a worldwide hit. This was followed by FAU: G and Legend Squad 3D for the Indian market.

Games with Monthly Active Small Group (MAU) users in India were Free Fire, PUBG: New State, and Bridge Race.

Games in India with Breakout Downloads and other countries. (Image credit: AppAnnie)

Overall, the best game in India in terms of consumer spending was Free Fire, followed by Call of Duty: Mobile, Coin Master, Candy Crush, and Teen Patti. The best game in India in terms of overall downloads was Ludo King, followed by Free Fire and Carrom Pool.

Best games overall in India. (Image credit: App Annie)

Social and dating apps: top trends around the world and for India

App Annie notes that the time spent on the top 25 live streaming apps has outpaced the overall social market year over year by a factor of 9. These apps are also driving consumer spending as consumers ” tilt ”their favorite content creators.

Globally, TikTok won engagement per user among the top five social apps that spent the most time in 2021. But in India, it was apps from Meta (formerly Facebook) that benefited from the TikTok ban in 2020. Facebook and Instagram saw its engagement deepen by 15% and 35% respectively in 2021 in India.

The best social apps in India in terms of downloads. (Image credit: App Annie)

Instagram led the Indian market in terms of downloads in the social category, followed by MX TakaTak, Facebook, Snapchat and Moj. WhatsApp Messenger was eighth on the list. The best app in terms of consumer spending in this category was Tango Live, which is a live streaming app, followed by Truecaller and Who (Call & Chat), which is another live streaming app.

For dating apps, as consumer spending continued to rise thanks to markets such as the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom and China, India saw a decline in contrast. App Annie notes that “despite the size of its population, India is a region that has seen its consumer spending on dating apps decline, although it is still up 18% since 2018”.

He adds that “India is a single market where although dating app users may not be spending much, over 75% of Indian daters have started dating for leisure and over. 50% think dating is a way to explore. “

Globally, Tinder was the leading consumer spending app in the dating category. He also maintained this lead in India. However, in terms of downloads, the top app in India was CuteU, followed by ZeepLive.

Financial applications

In India, financial apps topped 1 billion downloads in 2021, with a 28% year-over-year increase. Apps like Binance and WazirX saw the biggest year-over-year increase in usage. According to AppAnnie, “understanding the flexibility of their offerings that go beyond exchanging cryptocurrency assets is crucial for any app publisher trying to emulate their successful adoption around the world.”

While US-based publishers dominated the cryptocurrency space, occupying half of the top 10 most downloaded cryptocurrency apps globally, India was also a growing competitor in 2021.

For example, CoinDCX Investment reached the ninth most downloaded cryptocurrency app globally, even though it was launched in the fourth quarter of 2020. While PhonePe led the Indian market in terms of breakout downloads, it was followed by Bajaj FinServ, CoinSwitch, Upstox Pro, CoinDCX Investment and WazirX in the list.

Streaming apps

Thanks to the pandemic, more and more people are indoors, and streaming services continue to benefit. App Annie expects Netflix to meet over a million local downloads and a strong audience in over 60 countries. Meanwhile, Disney + (which is Disney + Hotstar in India) has also managed to compete with Amazon Prime Video’s global footprint, even though it didn’t launch until late 2019.

Plus, as the data has shown, content can help increase downloads. While Made for Love (TV series) coincided with a 61% increase in HBO Max app downloads, the release of Squid Game in September 2021 saw a 6% increase in Netflix app downloads.

The major video streaming apps in India and APAC region by downloads. (Image credit: AppAnnie)

Interestingly for India, MX Player was the main driver of growth in the total number of hours spent on video streaming applications. Disney + Hotstar was the leader in downloads in the Indian market, followed by MX Player, Zee5, Daily Hunt, JioTV, Amazon Prime Video, SonyLive, Voot, BOOYAH Live and YouTube Kids. Netflix is ​​not in the top ten list for India in terms of downloads.

However, in terms of consumer spending, while Disney + Hotstar was the leader, YouTube and SonyLive were number two and three. This was followed by Zee5 and Netflix.

Health and fitness

Meditation apps continued to advance in the Health & Fitness category. According to the data, Calm remains the most downloaded meditation app in 2020 and 2021 globally, with Headspace and Meditopia completing the top three.

Additionally, Calm and Headspace saw the total time spent in their Google Play apps increase by 12% and 15% year-over-year, respectively. These two apps were also the top apps in India in terms of consumer spending, followed by CultFit, Flo (ovulation and period tracking) and Strava.

Business / job applications have been very successful in India. (Image credit: App Annie)

Apps for Jobs, Retail Shopping

Another interesting trend was that job search platforms like Sonic and Apna were the most popular apps in terms of downloads in the UK and India, respectively. In India, apps such as WhatsApp Business, PhonePe Business, Kormo Jobs, Hirect, also experienced breakout downloads.

In the shopping / retail category, Flipkart had Monthly Active Users (MAUs) in small groups, followed by Meesho, Amazon, Ajio Shopping and Myntra. Newcomer Shopee was number seven on the global list for India. However, Meesho led the way in breakout downloads, while Shopee was number four. Flipkart was number six, while Amazon is not in the top ten.

APAC’s breakout shopping apps in terms of downloads. For India, Meesho was in the lead. (Image credit: App Annie

Increased time spent, downloads

App Annie’s report notes that 2021 saw massive growth in consumer spending on mobile phone apps, with the United States registering an additional $ 43 billion during the year, an annual growth of 30%. . In markets like India, there has been remarkable growth in app downloads.

In addition, nearly seven out of ten minutes on mobile were spent on social and photo and video applications this year. Apps like YouTube and TikTok continue to see an increase, with consumers even turning what was considered “non-mobile” time into time spent in apps and games, the report notes.

Generation Z is above all social networks and video

The report notes that Gen Z (born mid-90s to early 2010s) are more interested in photography, video, entertainment, and social apps. The best apps for Gen Z users were Instagram, Spotify, Netflix, Snapchat, and TikTok. For millennials however, finance and shopping apps remain important. The main social apps for them were Facebook, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and eBay. These are monthly active users in a particular age group.