New mobile app downloads were up 11% in 2022, reaching 255 billion in the major global markets, according to a new report from Data.ai. That equates to 485,000 apps downloaded per minute.

Mobile App Download

Mobile app downloads in the U.S. exceeded 10 billion and were about even with the previous year.

Mobile users aren’t spending quite as much on apps, however. App store spending was down 2% and totaled $167 billion. About $318,000 was spent per minute, the researchers noted

Nevertheless, mobile ad spending was $336 billion, 14% year-over-year growth. If it was a country, that would make it the world’s 44^th largest, researchers said.

The Data.ai forecast calls for mobile ad spending to increase 7% to $362 billion in 2023. That would equate to a compound average growth rate of 18.5% over the five-year period between 2018 and 2023.

“Short video apps are expected to drive ad spend, as social networking platforms are suffering decline,” the researchers wrote.

Unsurprisingly, the average time spent per day on mobile phones was up 3%, reaching approximately five hours in 10 markets studied. The average time spent in the U.S. was a bit lower than the average, falling below 4.5 hours. There has been a considerable jump since 2019, however, when the U.S. average was below 3.5 hours.