The big picture: Mobile app spending worldwide is forecasted to reach $64.9 billion across the App Store and Google Play through June 30. That’s according to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower, and should it pan out, it’d represent an increase of 24.8 percent over the $52 billion generated by the two app stores during the same period in 2020.

Although spending so far this year has eclipsed what was generated in the first half of 2020, year-over-year growth is actually down 3.6 percent when comparing 2020 to 2019.

Looking at the two major app stores individually, Apple’s App Store is projected to generate $41.5 billion in revenue in the first half of this year – or about 1.8 times more than the estimated $23.4 billion that Google Play is expected to drum up.

Conversely, it’s Google’s store that is expected to experience greater year-over-year growth – 30 percent growth versus just 22.1 percent growth for the App Store.

Of course, any direct comparisons to 2020 should come with an asterisk given the pandemic and its impact on spending, especially during the height of lockdown.

Collectively, Sensor Tower estimates 72.5 billion app downloads globally in 1H21. That's pretty incredible considering modern app stores have only been around since 2008.

Image credit Sensor Tower