Google’s Play Store has 2.5 active users in over 190 countries and has just celebrated its tenth anniversary.
The majority of this userbase is from India, as are the Indian apps. Apps and games with Indian roots have reportedly seen a 200% growth in monthly active users, marking a new high point for the Indian app sector.
India has risen to become “one of the top downloaders for applications and games throughout the world,” according to a recent Google blog post.
Along with the 200% increase in active monthly users, consumer expenditure on Indian apps and games increased by 80% in 2021, outpacing the figures from 2019.
In categories like education, payments, health, entertainment, and gaming, Indian apps saw substantial growth. This occurred two years ago at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Google gives a few examples, including Pratilipi, Doubnut, and HealthifyMe, which is now ranked as one of the top health apps on the Play Store. One of the first Indian games to reach 500 million downloads was Ludo King, which can be fairly said to have been everyone’s companion app during the lockdown days. The list includes applications like Krishify, Evolve, and others. Additionally, it was discovered that in 2021 compared to 2019, 150% more users from outside of India used Indian apps.
According to Google, “India will play a significant role in the growth of the global app ecosystem in the future decade, from leading in-app adoptions to developing as a large global developer hub.” It promotes some of its India-specific programmes, like Play Academy, Indie Games Accelerator, and Google for Startups Accelerator, among others, in an effort to maintain this partnership.
The digital behemoth pledges to offer more resources and launch more projects that will help the Google Play Store expand its presence in India. In order to commemorate the Play Store’s 10th anniversary, Google redesigned the Play Store icon.