Google Play Downloads Now Exceed Apple App Store's by 60 Percent: Survey

According to Q3 data by App Annie, Google leads in free downloads and gets major contribution from emerging markets.

The App Annie Index: Market Q3 2014 report claims that Google Play downloads exceeded App Store downloads by around 60 percent in Q3 2014 as compared to the same time last year. The App Store however still generated more revenue than Google Play, and was ahead by 60 percent.

The report is claimed to cover more than 150 countries worldwide for both the App Store and Google Play. The report notes that revenue figures are based solely on app store earnings, which doesn't take into account potential ad income from apps on both Android and iOS.

App Annie says that games saw big revenue growth in Q3 2014. The firm adds that the majority of Google Play's worldwide revenues came from games and that there were "huge increases in earnings in the US and South Korea, where games were responsible for nearly all of Google Play's Q3 revenue growth in each country." Other than that, the reason for free downloads increase from Google Play in developing and emerging markets is that people are less likely to spend money on paid apps.

The report (via The Next Web) mentions that Google Play downloads saw strong growth in markets like Brazil, Indonesia and India in Q3 2014. In this period, Indonesia saw double-digit growth, which has been increasing every quarter for more than two years.

The data by App Annie Intelligence also explores the explosive growth for messaging apps across the globe for both iOS and Android platforms. Here Facebook Messenger is leading the way, according to App Annie.

"Facebook Messenger's downloads jumped on both stores in late July following Facebook's strategic decision to move all worldwide messaging functionality from Facebook to Facebook Messenger. Its downloads vaulted in August and increased yet again in September. Facebook's action is in line with the trend of unbundling apps, similar to what Foursquare did with Swarm, in order to provide users with a streamlined, focused and improved experience," the report notes.