
The app store is constantly evolving. So much so, that the apps that were at the top of the app store charts a year ago are now being outperformed by other categories. In this article, we’d like to talk about one of the most recent best performers in the app store; the entertainment category. We consider entertainment apps to be the rising stars of the app store world because they have risen out of nowhere to become one of the most used and demanded app categories across all platforms.
Apps aren’t just for fun anymore – they are used to provide utility and entertainment in day to day lives by millions of people across the world. What’s interesting though is that despite all of the useful apps in the app store, entertainment apps such as gaming apps, music apps or videos/movie apps are all rising in popularity.
The Biggest Entertainment Apps
In 2014, the biggest entertainment subcategory was gaming apps – this comes as no surprise considering that gaming apps completely swamped the app stores in 2014. There were still plenty of other great apps released in 2014, but the majority of titles in the charts were in fact gaming charts. Part of this huge success in the gaming app category could be down to the way it’s become easier for smartphone owners to play games, but it could also come down to the way top tier developers have managed to master user engagement and improve marketing techniques outside of traditional in-app advertising. In fact, 2014 saw many big names like King and Supercell release TV commercials for different regions.
Gaming apps aren’t the only contributors to the success of the entertainment category. Very closely behind gaming apps are music applications. The music app category has exploded because the formula for interacting with music has changed. The physical format has almost died and as a result, to save money, many users have moved to much more cost-effective music streaming services like Spotify and TIDAL. These services are great for user engagement because not only can users listen to any new music free of charge when connected to the internet, but premium users can download music to listen to for offline usage.
Video and movie apps were seen as the third-highest entertainment app category in 2014, largely due to the huge explosion of popularity behind Netflix. Mobile devices were just an additional platform for Netflix users to view content.
The Biggest Movers
Sometimes the whole story isn’t told just through the most popular entertainment apps. In fact, if you’re looking to get in on the entertainment success story, your best is to focus on the biggest movers. A category like music may be popular but if it’s not seeing any new growth then it could be quite possible that there is not much market for competition in this area. It would make sense then that 2014 saw a -1% change in usage time because companies like Spotify are close to monopolizing the music streaming industry, making it very hard for competitors to break in without having a huge investment fund.
In 2014, the biggest movers were gaming, videos/movies and sports in this order. Gaming apps are easy to create compared to some other applications and there are endless ways to recreate old ideas. The gaming category is one of the few categories on the app store that still shows lots of potential for up and coming indie developers. New game ideas are appreciated but old, refreshed ideas are eaten up by players too.
The growth in videos/movies could simply be due to the improvement in the services provided by companies like YouTube, Netflix or even Amazon. As a result, this growth could mostly be down to the fast transition many individuals are making from cable or live TV to streaming services such as Netflix.
Sport is an interesting category for growth – the sports world is absolutely filled with money so there’s so much potential here for some great app ideas. We’re excited to see what could potentially be created from this category. Apps can include league scores/fixtures, sports news or even fantasy sports applications.
It’s safe to say that entertainment apps are becoming incredibly popular on smartphones and there is still plenty of untapped potential to take advantage of.