Instagram, Hotstar, WhatsApp - top apps in India in 2021: App Annie report

Apart from Instagram, the top 10 most downloaded apps in the country were MX TakaTak - Short Videos (Entertainment), Facebook - Social Networks (Social Media), Snapchat - Media Sharing Networks (Social Media), Meesho - E-Commerce (C2C) (Shopping), Moj - Short Videos (Entertainment), Josh - Short Videos (Entertainment), Flipkart - E-Commerce (B2C) (Shopping), PhonePe - Digital Wallets & Payment (Finance), and Share Karo India - File Management (Utility & Productivity).

In terms of consumer spend monthly, the top 10 apps were Hotstar - OTT (Entertainment), Tinder - Dating (Social Media), LinkedIn - Integrated Career Platform (Business), Chamet - Dating (Social Media), Tango Live - Live Streaming (Entertainment), YouTube - Video Sharing (Entertainment), Truecaller Caller - Blocker (Social Media), Sony LIV - OTT (Entertainment), Google One - File Management (Utility & Productivity), and ZEE5 - OTT (Entertainment).

The top 10 apps in terms of active users were WhatsApp Messenger- Communication (Social Media), Facebook - Social Networks (Social Media), Truecaller - Caller Blocker (Social Media), Instagram - Media Sharing Networks (Social Media), Facebook Messenger - Communication (Social Media), Amazon - E-Commerce (B2C) (Shopping), PhonePe - Digital Wallets & Payment (Finance), Flipkart - E-Commerce (B2C) (Shopping), MX Player - OTT (Entertainment), and MyJio - Network Management (Utility).

The report also highlights that the users in India spent 4.7 average hours per day on mobile in 2021 compared to 4.5 hours in 2020 and 3.7 hours in 2019. Users in Brazil, Indonesia, and South Korea surpassed 5 hours per day in mobile apps in 2021.

The report noted that the mobile-first markets spend 1/3 of waking hours on mobile. Across the top 10 markets analysed, the weighted average surpassed 4 hours 48 minutes in 2021 — up 30% from 2019. The average American watched 3.1 hours of TV a day, whereas they spent 4.1 hours on their mobile device in 2021.

India retained its position as the second-largest market in terms of app downloads globally with 2669.2 crore downloads in 2021 compared to 2426.7 crore in 2020 and 1895.5 crore in 2019. Users spent 69,989.8 crore hours on mobile apps in 2021 as against 65,564.3 crore hours in 2020 and 51099.9 hours in 2019. Globally, users downloaded 230 billion apps and spent 3.8 trillion hours on mobile apps.

The report noted that emerging markets dominate for downloads growth with India seeing standout downloads. Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Egypt were among the fastest-growing markets for downloads at 25%, 25%, 25%, 20% 15%, and 15% growth YoY, respectively.

In line with the global trends, mobile users in India spent a large chunk of their time on social & communication apps followed by photo & video, gaming, entertainment, and other apps. Globally, 7 of every 10 minutes on mobile was spent on social and photo & video apps in 2021. As time increases on mobile in emerging categories, consumers are also engaging deeper in early-mover categories like Social, Communication, and Photo & Video apps.

Even as the total hours spent watching video streaming apps grew 16% worldwide since pre-pandemic levels, the same dropped in India by 8% in 2021 versus 2019. Most countries in Asia saw growth in time spent among the top 20 video streaming apps. Indonesia and Russia saw the highest increases in total hours spent across their video streaming apps in 2021, with India's MX Player being the primary driver of growth.

Hotstar, MX Player, and ZEE5 were the top 3 most downloaded video streaming apps in India followed by Dailyhunt, JioTV, Amazon Prime Video, SonyLIV, Voot, BOOYAH Live, and YouTube Kids. In terms of consumer spend, the top apps were Hotstar, YouTube, SonyLIV, ZEE5, Netflix, Voot, ALTBalaji, Discovery Plus, Viki, and Sun NXT.

Among the social apps, the most downloaded apps in India were Instagram, MX TakaTak, Facebook, Snapchat, Moj, Josh, Share Karo India, WhatsApp Messenger, Truecaller, and Telegram. As far as consumer spend is concerned, the top apps in India were Truecaller, Who -- Call & Chat, ShareChat, Fachat - Videochat with Stranger, YoYo, Ola Party, Facebook, IMO, and DODO.

WhatsApp, YouTube, and Instagram were the most searched iOS App Store keywords in 2021 in Business, Entertainment, and Photo & Video categories.

The year 2021 saw an additional $16 billion getting added in gaming consumer spend bringing the total to $116 billion. In India, the mobile game consumer spend grew to $170 million in 2021 from $130 million in 2018. Total mobile game downloads in the country rose to 933 crore in 2021 from 505 crore in 2018.

In India, the breakout games in terms of downloads were Bridge Race, FAU-G: Fearless and United Guards, Legend Squad 3D, Hair Challenge, High Heels, Stacky Dash, Crazy Car Stunt Driving Games, Going Balls, Phone Case DIY, and Fashion Princess: Dress Up Time.

In terms of breakout Monthly Active User (MAU) apps, Free Fire topped the chart in India followed by PUBG: NEW STATE, Bridge Race, WormsZone.io, Hair Challenge, Join Clash 3D, 2048 Cube Winner, High Heels, Cricket League, and My Talking Angela 2.