Top Grossing Apps (2023)

As detailed in our app revenues market post, Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store both earn a majority of revenue from games, accounting for 71 percent across both platforms.

It shouldn’t be a surprise then that the majority of top grossing apps are games, especially as certain apps have found ways to avoid users paying for subscriptions on the platform.

For example, Netflix and Spotify have both removed the ability to subscribe in-app on iOS and Android. We estimate that Apple and Google missed out on $1.8 billion in 2020 from Netflix removing the ability to subscribe in-app.

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In-app purchases are more of a difficult workaround, as users often make impulsive purchases. That means almost all games use Apple and Google’s payment solutions for in-app purchases.

In terms of countries, China, Japan and the US are the three largest spenders worldwide, in that order. Japan has the highest spending per capita, while China, due to the amount of mobile users, can often elevate a game to top grossing completely on its own.

An example of this would be Honor of Kings, which has consistently held a top three position in grossing for five years. The game is only available in China, and is a semi-port of the popular PC game League of Legends.

We have collected data and statistics on the top grossing apps. Read on below to find out more.

Top Grossing Apps Key Statistics

• TikTok was the top grossing app of 2022, generating $2 billion revenue
• Honor of Kings was the top grossing game of 2022, generating $1.65 billion revenue
• PUBG Mobile revenue declined 44% in 2022, from $2 billion t0 $1.12 billion

App Data Report 2023

Want to learn all about the app industry? Our App Data Report covers revenues, downloads, and number of apps across the Apple App Store and Google Play, alongside the top grossing and most downloaded individual apps.

Top Grossing Apps by Country

China, Japan and the US are the three key markets for top grossing apps, accounting for approximately 80% of all revenue generated on the app store. These three countries have a much higher spend per user than the rest of the world.

Top Grossing Apps and Games 2022

TikTok was the top grossing app of 2022, generating $2.05 billion, with revenues increasing by 17.5%. Five of the ten top grossing apps were games in 2022.

Sources: AppMagic, Sensor Tower

Top Grossing Apps and Games in United States 2022

Candy Crush Saga was the top grossing app in the United States in 2022, generating $606 million. Google One moved up a few places, increasing its in-app revenues to $510 million.

Sources: AppMagic, Sensor Tower

Top Grossing Apps and Games in United Kingdom 2022

Disney+ was the top grossing app in the United Kingdom in 2022 with £46 million revenue, surpassing Roblox which held the title in 2021.

Sources: AppMagic, Sensor Tower

Top Grossing Apps and Games 2021 in India 2022

Free Fire MAX was by far the top grossing app in India in 2022, which is an updated version of Garena Free Fire launched after the Indian government banned the original app.

Source: AppMagic

Top Grossing Apps by Platform

In this section, we cover the top grossing apps on iOS and Android.

Top Grossing iOS Apps and Games 2022

PUBG Mobile was the top grossing iOS app in 2022, although most of its revenues came from China, where it is called Game for Peace.

Source: AppMagic

Top Grossing Google Play Apps and Games 2022

Google One surpassed Coin Master to be the top grossing app of 2022, generating $891 million. TikTok took second place, with $674 million of its in-app purchase revenues generated on Google Play.

Source: AppMagic

Top Grossing Apps by Category

In this section, we look at the top ten most grossing apps in specific categories.

Top Grossing Apps 2022

TikTok is far ahead of all other apps in total revenue generation, although about 35% of this is from Douyin. YouTube has seen its in-app revenues increase steadily over the past three years, reaching second place this year.

Source: AppMagic

Top Grossing Games 2022

A majority of revenue generation comes from two countries: China and Japan. Honor of Kings, Genshin Impact, and PUBG Mobile are primarily aimed at the Asian market.

Source: AppMagic

Top Grossing Entertainment Apps 2022

TikTok and YouTube are far ahead of other entertainment apps, due to in-app purchases. Disney, HBO Max, and Netflix have several ways of moving customers away from subscribing in app, thus avoiding the 30% charge, which lowers their trackable revenues.

Source: AppMagic

Top Grossing Music Apps 2022

As was the case with Netflix in entertainment, we are missing Spotify, as it also employs tricks to avoid users subscribing in-app. Tencent’s QQ Music was the top grossing app, generating $300 million.

Source: AppMagic

Top Grossing Chat Apps 2022

Japanese super-app Line was the top grossing chat app in 2022, generating $234 million in consumer spending. Line generates revenue through a lot of other services, such as stickers and payments.

Source: AppMagic

Top Grossing Dating Apps 2022

Tinder made twice as much as Bumble in 2022, generating $808 million to Bumble’s $339 million. Hinge saw a good amount of growth, with $169 million, putting it in a firm third place for consumer spending.

Top Grossing Health & Fitness Apps 2022

Even though MyFitnessPal and Fitbit were not in the top 10 most downloaded health & fitness apps, they’ve captured a large audience that is willing to pay for premium services.

Top Grossing Education Apps 2022

Duolingo was far ahead of other education apps in consumer spending, generating $225 million in 2022. Babbel, its main competitor, made $47 million in that time, although it has a higher percentage of web subscribers.

Top Grossing Tool Apps 2022

Google One was the top grossing tool app in 2022, and far ahead of other cloud storage services such as Dropbox and Microsoft OneDrive.

Previous Years

Top Grossing App 2021