Remote work boom peaked? App downloads for productivity and business soften in 2023

The study, based on data from the App Radar platform, shows a decrease of 12% for productivity app downloads and a smaller decline of 0.26% for business app downloads year-on-year. Despite the slowdown, these categories continue to see substantial activity. The top business apps still garnered an impressive 681 million downloads in 2023 (682m in 2022), while the top productivity apps reached a staggering 9 billion downloads (10bn in 2022).

In terms of lifetime downloads, the top apps in the business and productivity categories have reached 4.7 billion and 55 billion downloads in the Google Play Store.

The top five Android apps in the business category in terms of lifetime downloads are LinkedIn (1.5bn), Zoom (1.1bn), Microsoft Teams (426m), OfficeSuite (195m) and Indeed (188m). 

In the productivity category, the top five Android apps in terms of lifetime downloads are Google Drive (10bn), Google Calendar (6bn), Microsoft OneDrive (4bn), Google Assistant (3bn) and Google Keep (2.7bn). 

Looking at the apps with the biggest growth year-on-year, the study has found that the top five apps in the business category to be Lopay: Payments & POS (339% increase in 2023 when compared to 2022), Etsy Seller (329%), JobSwipe (221%), Parcel Tracking – pkge Mobile (144%) and Shopify (83%).

In terms of productivity, PDF Reader – PDF Viewer (701%), Notepad (457%), All Document Reader (431%), Google Tasks (29%) and Link to Windows (21%) experienced the biggest percentage growth in 2023 when compared to 2022. 

A separate study of Apple Search Ads by SplitMetrics – Apple Search Ads Search Results Benchmark Report 2024 – found that the business category boasted a high Tap-Through Rate (TTR) of 12.44% (above average) and a strong Cost-Per-Tap (CPT) of $1.98, demonstrating user interest and willingness to engage with business app advertising.  However, the category also had a high and above-average Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA) of $2.93, suggesting it’s a competitive environment to acquire new users.

Productivity apps, on the other hand, enjoyed a high TTR (11.82% – above the average of 10.22%) but a lower CPA ($1.64) compared to the average of $2.58. This indicates a strong user base and a more cost-effective environment for acquiring new users within the productivity app category.

Productivity had its highest CPT and CPA in May, June, and September, suggesting it may have been influenced by the busy exam seasons at schools and universities.

Thomas Kriebernegg, General Manager, SplitMetrics Agency, said: “The slowdown in download growth for productivity and business apps in 2023 is an interesting data point. While a small decrease in productivity apps is notable, the continued dominance of established players suggests a market saturation for core functionalities. The significant download numbers for both categories still highlight the ongoing need for these tools, but it will be interesting to see if developers focus on niche solutions or innovative features to reignite download growth moving forward. Additionally, the cost disparity between user acquisition for business apps compared to productivity apps offers valuable insights for app marketers looking to optimise their strategies in a competitive landscape.”

Business category top 5 – Google Play Downloads
AppTotal (as of 14.04.24)20232022
LinkedIn: Jobs & Business News1.5bn249m233m
Zoom – One Platform to Connect1.1bn126m150m
Microsoft Teams426m78m73m
OfficeSuite: Word, Sheets, PDF195m7m8m
Indeed Job Search188m21m22m
Productivity category top 5 – Google Play Downloads
AppTotal (as of 14.04.24)20232022
Google Drive10bn1.1bn1.2bn 
Google Calendar6.1bn1.3bn1.2bn
Microsoft OneDrive4.0bn670m659m
Google Assistant3.1bn911m864m
Google Keep – notes and lists2.7bn501m502m

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *