Google Play grew much faster than Apple's App Store in 2014 - report

According to a recent report from appFigures, Google Play has grown more than Apple has in both the number of apps and developers in the year 2014. Google has also grown faster than Apple in the total number of apps available, total number of developers creating apps for the platform, and for the first time in 2014, the Play Store has released more new apps than App Store released in a given year.

Taking a look at the charts below, we’re seeing major growth in the number of apps and developers in the Google Play Store, iOS App Store, as well as the Amazon Appstore from 2010 to 2014. Google ended the year 2014 with over 1.43 million published apps, compared to Apple’s 1.21 million. Amazon is still very far behind, finishing the year with only 293,000 apps in all. We can also see the total number of developer growth for each platform. Google finished the year with almost 400k developers, while Apple nearly made it to 300k. Amazon is nearing the 50k mark to finish out 2014. As you can see, Google Play’s developer community has grown faster than Apple’s for the third year in a row.

Moving forward, we can also see that app development is on the rise. Google Play grew in the number of apps by more than a 100% increase, while Amazon grew a bit more than 80%, and Apple growing by under 60% in 2014. Additionally, more developers joined Google Play in 2014 than Amazon and Apple combined. The Google Play Store now has 388k developers on the Android platform, compared to Apple’s 282k and Amazon’s 48k.

The report also took a look at the fastest growing categories in each app store. Google Play’s Games and Photography apps increased tremendously, while Apple’s Business and Food & Drink categories rose the most. There’s not much jarring information here, but the charts below still show some interesting results.

So, why is Google Play growing so much faster than Apple’s App Store? It’s mainly because Android is so much more popular than iOS globally, and its developer base is simply larger. Also, the difference may have a lot to do with the way Google and Apple publish apps in their respective stores. Apple has a more rigorous app approval process before anything can get published, while Google is a tad more lenient up front, then fixes problems and violations after the app is published. Due to these opposing publishing processes, we’re unsure if these charts account for the removal of apps after they’ve already been published.

Either way, we’re still seeing major growth out of both Google and Apple, so it will be interesting to see who surpasses who in the coming years.