In a nutshell: Consumers are increasingly relying on their mobile devices for both entertainment and productivity purposes. Such is especially true in the midst of the global pandemic that is currently playing out as App Annie recently highlighted.

In a report published on Thursday, the app market and insights company revealed that in the first few weeks of March, the worldwide average weekly time spent in apps (among Android phone users) increased 20 percent year over year.

Consumer spending also shot up during the quarter. According to App Annie, users funneled more than $23.4 billion through app stores, the largest ever quarter in terms of spending. This translated to more than 31 billion new app downloads, a 15 percent increase compared to the previous quarter.

iOS users spent more money than Android users, the firm found, although total Android downloads significantly outnumbered those on Apple's platform.

Unsurprisingly, social media and entertainment-focused apps have been dominant so far this year with relative newcomers like Houseparty and Zoom exploding in popularity as of late.

For the week starting March 15, for example, Houseparty downloads increased globally by an incredible 735x compared to the previous week. Zoom, meanwhile, was ranked as the top business app on iPhone in 141 markets as of March 31. In Q4 2019, it was the top iPhone app in just a single market worldwide.

It'll be interesting to see over the coming months if consumer spending on apps slows down as people tighten their entertainment budgets amid financial hardships or if spending remains elevated in lieu of other activities that are now off the table for many like dining out or going to the movies.

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