Data.ai Report Find Consumers Spent A Record-Breaking $18.2 Billion In 2021 On Entertainment Apps

Luke Smith 6th April 20227th April 2022

A report from data.ai has found that consumers in 2021 spent a record-breaking $18.2 billion dollars across entertainment apps. data.ai’s ‘State of Media and Entertainment on Mobile in 2022’ report dives into how video streaming, Music & Audio and Books & Reference apps, were used in 2021, with the findings powered by App IQ – the industry’s first comprehensive taxonomy.

The report finds that OTT apps took the largest share of downloads and consumer spend worldwide, with more than 2.2 billion downloads and $6.3 billion in consumer spend worldwide in 2021 growing 53% increase YoY. HBO Max, Disney+ and Crunchy Roll drove the biggest growth in consumer spend in 2021.

Short Video apps saw a 38% increase in time spent worldwide YoY to reach a collective 450 billion hours, more than 3x the total time spent watching OTT apps.

The report also showed that:

Entertainment and Books & Reference accounted for nearly 1 in every 5 non-gaming app downloads led by Audible, Ximalaya FM and Spiritual Wealth Club and nearly 50% of consumer spend worldwide in 2021
$2.08B was spent across Live Streaming Apps, an increase of 33% led by Twitch, Bigo Live and Tango Live

Comics apps saw 44% growth YoY in consumer spend and represented a market 6x larger than that of Audio Books for global consumer spend — highlighting a large consumer shift fuelled by Gen Z led by apps such as Picoma, Line Webtoon and Magazine Pocket
QQ Music, YouTube Music and Amazon Music topped the charts in the Music and Audio category where $1.95B was spent by consumers, an increase of 29% – showcasing the power multiple services from one provider

In terms of dating, the report showed that more significantly more money was spent by consumers on dating than any other area of the social media sector – the second highest sector for consumer spend behind entertainment. Infact, only OTT brought in a higher consumer spend in 2021 than dating platforms.

Read the full report here.