Free Fire, the top apps in India for 2021: App Annie report

Indians spent an average of 4.7 hours in front of their mobile phone in 2021 with apps such as Instagram, YouTube, Free Fire and Ludo King coming out on top in various categories, according to App Annie, a top mobile app analytics research firm.

App Annie’s ‘State of Mobile’ 2021 looked at various categories of apps, downloads, consumer spending for consumers across the world, and in India, on their mobile phones. Here’s a look at the top points in the report, including the leading apps in India, across categories.

MX Player to Free Fire, the top apps in India for 2021: App Annie report

By: Tech Desk | New Delhi |

January 13, 2022 5:38:58 pm

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App Annie's annual report give a close look at the top apps in India, across each category. Top (L to R) Logos of Free Fire, Instagram and MX Player seen. Bottom (L to R) Logos for Ludo King, and Bridge Race are seen. (Image created by Abhishek /Indian Express)

Gaming apps in India such as Roblox and Genshin Impact saw further growth in 2021 with increased consumer spending. In India, consumer spending on mobile games grew as well to $0.17 billion, which is a significant increase from $0.4 billion in 2020. Mobile game downloads in India also grew significantly to 9.33 billion in total.

The games which saw breakout consumer spending in India were Top War: Battle Game, followed by Genshin Impact and Match Masters. The game with breakout downloads in the country was ‘Bridge Race’, which was also a worldwide hit. This was followed by G, and Legend Squad 3D for the Indian market.

India in terms of consumer spending was Free Fire, followed by Call of Duty: Mobile, Coin Master, Candy Crush, and Teen Patti. The top game in India in terms of overall downloads was Ludo King, followed by Free Fire and Pool.

For dating apps, while consumer spending continued to grow driven by markets such as the US, Japan, the UK, and China, India saw a decline in contrast. App Annie notes that “despite its population size, India is one region that saw declining consumer spend on dating apps, although it is still up 18 per cent since 2018.”

It adds that “India is a unique market where, although users of dating apps may not be spending heavily, more than 75 per cent of Indian daters have started going on hobby dates and more than 50 per cent are thinking of dating as a way to explore.”