Google Play has significantly widened its lead over Apple’s App Store when it comes to app downloads, but Apple’s store still dominates app revenues, according to new research.
App Annie reports that over 150 million apps were downloaded on Google Play during the third quarter of 2014, compared to around 100 million on the Apple App store .
This translates as 60% more app downloads from Google Play than the App Store in the third quarter of this year, compared with Google Play’s 25% lead at the same time last year.
But Apple still rules when it comes to revenue, which was about 60 percent higher than Google Play revenue for the quarter.
App Annie counts paid downloads and in-app purchases, but not in-app advertising, which accounts for an estimated 14 percent of mobile app store revenues in 2014.
The good news for Google, which like Apple retains a 30 percent cut of app revenues, is that courtesy of games, it’s also closing the revenue gap on the App Store. At the same time last year, App Store revenues stood at more than double the revenues on Google Play.
All of this matters a lot for developers trying to decide their priorities when building apps. Right now developing for iOS
According to App Annie, games take the cake for most of Google’s revenues related to app downloads for Q3 in the U.S. and South Korea, where games made up nearly all of the Google Play revenue growth.
App Annie also reports that emerging markets like Indonesia, Brazil, and India saw steady growth over the past couple of years, and that will probably only continue.
See app global data breakdowns below:
