Yesterday Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple's iPhone Devices Dominated Christmas Day Activations in the US by a Landslide Winning 9 out of 10 Spots. So it stands to reason that App Store purchases for the holidays would be dominated by Apple as well. A report published this week by SensorTower provides us with the data to prove that out.

On Christmas day, consumers around the globe spent an estimated $407.6 million across Apple’s App Store and Google Play, according to preliminary Sensor Tower Store Intelligence estimates. This figure represents 34.5 percent year-over-year growth from approximately $303 million in 2019, and is nearly 17 points higher than the growth experienced last year when spending grew 17.7 percent Y/Y.

As in previous years, Apple’s App Store captured the bulk of the spending between the two platforms on Christmas day. It saw 68.4 percent of the spending, or $278.6 million, up 35.2 percent Y/Y. Google Play saw $129 million in revenue, up more than 33 percent Y/Y.

Consumers spent $112 million on non-game apps this Christmas, up 59 percent from $70.5 million in the previous year. Compared to last Christmas, non-game apps saw 4.2 percentage points more total spending.

The category that generated the most revenue outside of games on both Apple’s App Store and Google’s platform was Entertainment. On the App Store, Entertainment apps reached $19.3 million or 21.8 percent of all non-game spending. On Google Play, the category generated $4.3 million or 18.5 percent of all revenue generated. For more on this, read the full SensorTower report.

2020: Ten Milestones

SensorTower posted another interesting report last week titled "2020 Year In Review: 10 Mobile Milestones." Their report showed that the mobile market had reflected many of the shifts in lifestyle and consumer interest throughout an unprecedented year. The ten Milestone that they outline includes:

1. Consumer Spending Passed $100 Billion
2. TikTok’s Record-Breaking Year
3. Buy Now, Pay Later Apps Continue to Grow
4. Business Boom on Mobile
5. Small Screen Battles Loom Large
6. A Record Five Mobile Games Generated More Than $1 Billion in 2020
7. Roblox Passes $2 Billion in Consumer Spending
8. Genshin Impact is the Biggest RPG Launch To Date
9. PUBG Passes $4 Billion Grossed—$2.6 Billion This Year Alone
10. Among Us Picks Up More Than 275 Million Downloads

For details, read SensorTower's second report.