Photo, video apps record 29 billion downloads, $12 billion revenue in 2023

Data presented by OnlyAccount show that photo and video apps recorded 29.1 billion downloads with revenue more than triple in five years to a record of $12 billion in 2023.

This is an indication that as a key part of the social media experience, photo and video sharing has evolved over the past years.

Today, photo and video apps have more users than ever, thanks to hundreds of millions of people willing to spend money on scaling up their digital presence and creating nice pictures.

Today, many smartphone users have a soft spot for photo editing apps, making it one of the most popular and highest-grossing app categories across the App Store and Google Play Store.

The 2022 Statista Global Customer Survey showed that four in 10 smartphone users regularly use photo-editing apps, even more than basic apps like email, browsers and messenger apps.

The apps also have an army of users in the content creator’s industry but still make up just one part of the market. The photo and video app market also includes some of the biggest and most popular apps for video streaming, like YouTube and Twitch, which also had a significant role in surging revenues.

According to Statista Market Insights, the global photo and video app market grossed around $5 billion in revenue in 2019. Two years later, at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, this figure jumped to $9 billion and continued growing. Statistics show last year saw an 11 per cent revenue growth, with smartphone users spending roughly $10 billion on photo and video apps. This figure is expected to jump by 20 per cent and hit $12 billion in 2023. By 2027, the entire market will hit $16 billion in revenue.

The Statista survey showed that half of the total revenue in 2023, or $6 billion, comes from in-app purchases. Advertising and paid apps follow with $3 billion and $2 billion in revenue, respectively. Statista expects the following years to witness impressive growth in all three revenue streams. While in-app purchases and paid apps revenue are forecast to grow by a massive 50 per cent by 2027, the advertising segment will see revenue surge by 66 per cent in the next four years.

Some of the most popular photo and video apps hit millions of users in weeks. In 2019, FaceApp went viral after users across social media platforms shared pictures of their older or younger selves generated by the app. The photo-editing app powered by artificial intelligence, Lensa AI, also had overnight success, reaching more than 19 million downloads in a single month after adding the Magic Avatars feature.

The surging popularity of photo and video apps has helped the total number of downloads more than double in the past five years. Statista expects people worldwide to download 29.1 billion photo and video apps by the end of 2023, 107 per cent more than the 14 billion downloads reported in 2019. However, the following year will see slower growth rates, with downloads increasing by 27 per cent to 37 billion in 2027.