Mobile is having its best year thanks to the pandemic. According to App Annie’s latest report, in Q3 consumers downloaded 33 billion new apps globally and spent a record $28 billion in apps — up 20 percent year-over-year.

As markets ease stay-at-home restrictions, mobile usage remains high worldwide. Monthly time spent in mobile apps increased 25 percent YoY in Q3, in excess of 180 billion hours each month of July, August and September 2020, as per App Annie.

Of the 33 billion new apps consumers downloaded in Q3, 25 billion were from Google Play, which saw a 10 percent YoY, and 9 billion were from iOS, representing a 20 percent YoY.

By consumer spend, Tinder ranked number one, followed by TikTok, YouTube, Disney+, Tencent Video, Google One, BIGO LIVE, Netflix, Piccoma and iQIYI.

As for downloads, TikTok ranked first, followed by Facebook, WhatsApp, Zoom, Google Meet, Instagram, Messenger, Snack Video, Telegram and Snapchat.

On Google Play, non-gaming apps accounted for 55 percent of all downloads. India and Brazil were the two largest markets by downloads for Google Play.

The categories with the most amount of downloads on Google Play were games, tools and entertainment. App Annie also observed strong quarter-over-quarter growth of downloads for libraries & demo (310 percent), dating (100 percent) and events (45 percent) apps, perhaps a sign that consumers are resuming in-person interactions.

On iOS, non-gaming apps accounted for 70 percent of all downloads. The US—where consumer spend on sports apps increased by 55 percent from Q2—and China were the two largest markets by downloads for iOS.

Games, photos and video and entertainment were the largest categories by downloads on iOS for five straight quarters. The travel category was the largest driver of overall growth on iOS.

Similarly, travel (50 percent), navigation (25 percent) and weather (15 percent) apps on iOS all had strong QoQ growth.

App Annie says that in France, Germany, the UK and the US, there was a strong rebound of time spent in Airbnb, Google Maps, Booking.com, park4night, blitzerd.de, and Speedbot.

Consumers spent a record $28 billion in apps in Q3. On Google Play spend grew 35 percent YoY to over $10 billion, while on iOS spend grew 20 percent YoY to $18 billion.

The US, Japan and South Korea were the three largest markets driving consumer spend on Google Play. For iOS it was the US and Japan.

Google Play consumers spent the most on games, social and entertainment apps, fueled in part by Disney+, Twitch, Globo Play and HBO Max.

iOS users spent the most on games, entertainment and photo and video apps.

A major breakout app was Snack Video, which launched on iOS on July 30 and broke into the top 10 apps by worldwide downloads, driven by installs in India.