Global Apps in March 2023: AI Growth, Advertising, Revenue & Download Trends

With the aid of its App Intelligence and other modules, SocialPeta sorted out the top 20 global mobile apps, excluding games, by advertising, revenue, and downloads in March 2023. The rankings offer a snapshot of the changing trends in the global mobile app market at that time.

The overall performance of global mobile apps in March included several notable trends:

• The grammar checker Grammarly increased its advertising effort as it prepared for the release of a new AI product.
• Ramadan drove an increase in downloads and revenue for the Arabic VOD service Shahid.
• As the 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship began, F1TV more than doubled its revenue, with India contributing the largest share.
• Proxy apps including Q proxy and FlyProxy increased their advertising activity and achieved substantial download growth.

Grammarly Increased Ad Creatives Ahead of Its AI Push

The proofreading tool Grammarly reported a 96% month-over-month increase in ad creatives in March. Grammarly is a spelling and grammar checker designed to detect issues involving grammar, spelling, punctuation, word choice, and writing style.

Released on mobile in August 2019, Grammarly had become one of the best-known English writing assistant apps by 2023. In mid-March, its parent company announced GrammarlyGO, a generative AI product designed to take context, preferences, and goals into account when generating drafts. SocialPeta observed that Grammarly's increased advertising effort coincided with preparations for this new product.

According to SocialPeta's Advertiser Analysis, Grammarly's March advertising showed the following characteristics:

• It advertised in Canada, the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom, with relatively balanced creative shares across the four markets.
• Its creatives appeared on medical, word, board, and racing media, with each category accounting for around 19%.
• The words "free", "mistake", and "reports" were among the most frequently used terms in its advertising copy.
• Better-performing creatives generally focused on writing at work. One example showed spelling mistakes in an email before demonstrating how Grammarly could assist across multiple writing scenarios.

Phone Doctor Expanded Advertising Across Multiple Markets

Released in October 2022, the mobile phone cleaning tool Phone Doctor reported a 44% month-over-month increase in ad creatives in March. In addition to cleaning files, the app promoted its ability to remove large amounts of unnecessary files generated during WhatsApp use.

According to SocialPeta's Advertiser Analysis, Phone Doctor's March advertising showed the following patterns:

• Its advertising covered numerous countries across Southeast Asia, North America, and the Middle East. Each country represented roughly 1.4% to 1.9% of its creatives, suggesting that the app was still exploring potential target markets.
• Its creatives were mainly distributed on utility-focused media, accounting for about 21%, followed by puzzle and food and beverage media at roughly 12% each.
• Facebook News Feed was its main advertising placement at around 40%, followed by Instagram, Audience Network, and Messenger at approximately 20% each.
• Phone Doctor's more effective creatives generally fell into two groups: 2D animated demonstrations of phone cleaning, and ads presenting additional utility scenarios such as AI image conversion, video chatting, and photo editing.

There was almost no major change among the highest-ranking apps by revenue in March. SocialPeta therefore highlighted several apps outside the Top 20 that recorded comparatively strong month-over-month revenue growth.

App Store

• Demand for entertainment increased during Ramadan, and Arabic VOD service Shahid reported a 64% month-over-month increase in downloads in March. Its revenue increased by 51%, making it the No. 36 highest-grossing app on the App Store globally.
• Family location-sharing app Life360 reported 27% month-over-month revenue growth in March. The app provides real-time location sharing among family members and group-chat functionality. The United States contributed 60% of its revenue.

Google Play

The 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship began in early March, attracting increased attention to its official streaming app, F1TV. SocialPeta recorded 208% month-over-month revenue growth for the app. India accounted for 55% of its revenue.

Strava, a social fitness-tracking app, recorded 69% month-over-month revenue growth and ranked No. 45 on the global Google Play revenue chart. India, Brazil, and Indonesia contributed 21%, 15%, and 9% of its revenue, respectively.

SocialPeta also highlighted apps that recorded comparatively large download increases in March even though they did not enter the overall Top 20 download ranking.

App Store

• Amazon Prime Video, Amazon's global streaming video app, ranked No. 40 on the global App Store download chart. Its downloads increased by 41% month over month. The United States accounted for 31% of downloads, followed by Japan at 23%.
• In early March, the Bank of Brazil offered redemption-related options that drove record-high traffic to gov.br, the Brazilian government's digital services platform. Its downloads increased by 57% month over month, taking it to No. 56 on the global App Store download chart.

Google Play

• Released in November 2022, FlyProxy is an app for unblocking websites, Wi-Fi security, and privacy protection. Its downloads increased by 110% month over month in March, with India contributing 76% of downloads. SocialPeta recorded around 28,000 deduplicated Android creatives for the app during the month.
• Q proxy is a web accelerator app released by PRIME DIGITAL in February 2023. Its downloads increased by 1,195% month over month in March. India accounted for 58% of its downloads, followed by Pakistan at 24%.