China becomes top iOS App Store market in Q3

China set new record in the third quarter for the highest iOS App Store revenue to date for any country, according to App Annie’s Market Index Report for the period.

With total revenues of $1.7 billion, China overtook the United States by over 15% and its growth is projected to climb further by 2020.

The Q3 2016 Market Index Report also showed that China maintained its spot as No. 1 for Games category as it accounted for the majority of the generated revenue.

Other prominent categories making strides are Entertainment and Social Networking, which have more than tripled in the past year. Video streaming apps (like iQIYI, Tencent Video and Youku) in China have had a major impact on the Entertainment category as a whole.

Pokemon Go was cited as the stand-out app of the year, racking up $600 million in customer spend faster than any app to date. It also outpaced the extremely successful Clash of Clans by more than 6.2 times in under three months.

Pokemon Go has also converted a massive amount of a user’s non-mobile time to mobile time as its innovative AO gameplay and iconic IP were compelling enough to convince users to spend more time overall on their mobile devices. It has altered the playing field as it introduced augmented reality to the masses and paved the way for future AR and VR opportunities in the app stores.

The revenue of Entertainment apps strengthened in the third quarter and it has grown substantially in both iOS App Store and Google Play. This is largely due to the popularization of in-app subscriptions as a monetization method driven by video streaming.

With revenue more than tripling since the third quarter of 2014, people are not only using their mobile devices to stream content but also as a common form of payment.

This represents a significant shift from traditional broadcasting and television structures where users typically enter into a contract with a cable provider.