Netflix usurps Spotify as leader for app revenues

It might be hording a ridiculous amount of debt, but Netflix is ranking in the cash as it tops the tables for non-game app revenues.

Estimates from Sensor Tower, puts the content giant above the likes of Line and Tinder in the list, with revenues of $510 million, a 138% year on year increase, while last year’s leader Spotify drops out of the top ten completely. In fact, it has been a good year for video apps as Tecent Video and HBO Now also populate the list, hammering home the mobile video revolution.

While some might turn their nose up at the idea of the app economy, if Sensor Tower’s estimates are anywhere near accurate, the money is starting to stack up. Over the last 12 months, the team believe the app economy grew by 35% taking the total up to $58.6 billion, with mobile games continuing to dominate, accounting for roughly 82% of the total revenues.

And while Android might be the dominant operating system worldwide, Google’s inability to navigate the choppy waters of Chinese regulation is seemingly hurting. The Apple App Store collected $38.5 billion of the pot, almost double that of Google Play. China is one of the lucrative markets when it comes to mobile gaming fortunes, though it’ll be interesting to see how quickly this split evens out over the coming years.

It would be fair to assume mobile gaming’s dominance over the revenues will start to decline as the connected economy starts to take shape. Spending money through apps is becoming normalised as the variety of ways you can burn cash starts to increase. The App store is collecting the lion’s share of revenues thanks to its presence in China, but as money starts to increase in non-gaming apps, you should see the Android global market share dominance take a strangle hold of the revenues.

Video apps are of course an easy place to point to as an area which will erode the mobile gaming dominance over revenues, though other non-gaming areas such as transportation (Uber), takeaways (Just Eat), retail (Asos), entertainment (Odeon) and travel (Booking.com), will also take a bigger share. The smartphone is controlling more of our daily life and the paranoia around spending money through apps is starting to disappear.

That said, for the moment mobile gaming does continue to rule. Sitting at the top of the pile is Mixi’s Monster Strike, while Honor of Kings take second place. Candy Crush Saga is another which features in the top 10, an impressive feat considering the game has now been around for five years.

If you nail an idea, there certainly can be longevity in the app economy as many of the games in the top 10 predate 2017, though 2016’s biggest fad, Pokémon Go, failed to register a presence on the list. Niantec Labs might have been trying to reignite the flames throughout 2017, but the Sensor Tower estimates put Pokémon Go in the same bracket Los Del Rio, Leicester City Football Club and William Shatner.