Video dominates mobile app revenue, according to a new report. Of the total $3.8B smartphone owners spent on entertainment apps last quarter, three billion of it was spent on streaming and short video apps.

The most dramatic growth in earnings was seen in short video apps, with TikTok coins credited with generating the bulk of this money …

Video streaming apps led by Max

Analytics company AppFigures shared the data in its latest streaming app report, noting the sharp rise in video streaming in the past five years.

Boosted by the continued growth of Disney+, Peacock, and Paramount+ along with the soaring growth of Max, quarterly consumer spending in video streaming apps on mobile is 383% greater now than it was in the first quarter of 2019.

Max is the leading video streaming app in the US, beating every other competitor on both new downloads and in-app revenue. According to our estimates, the Max app was downloaded 6.4M times from the App Store and Google Play in the US in Q1 and saw gross revenue hit $244M. Netflix was a close second in terms of downloads and Disney+ a close second in terms of revenue.

TikTok coins reward live streamers

LowPass reports that the biggest growth was likely generated by TikTok coins.

Short video app revenue increased by more than 1500% – something Appfigures primarily attributes to people buying coins to reward live streamers on TikTok.

Coins can be purchased within the app, and used in one of two ways.

Creators can use them to promote their content. RedSocial says that the typical boost to exposure means that it costs around 10 cents to acquire a new follower.

Viewers can use them to reward creators. Those gifting coins also get to see their donation appear on-screen as they watch a video. TikTok confusingly converts coins into diamonds, and it’s these which creators can cash out.

Photo: Pxhere