COVID-19 and the ensuing stay-at-home orders have caused mobile app usage to skyrocket. Consumers are looking to fill unexpected free time due to limited leisure activities and social distancing, meaning many of us are reaching for mobile devices to pass the time. Throughout the past few months, Flurry has investigated various shifts in user behavior due to the pandemic by looking at app usage across categories. For this report, we’ve compiled our recent findings into one Slideshare to demonstrate the cross-category impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope you’ll take a look.

1. FLURRYSTATE OF MOBILE:
COVID-19 EDITION
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2. However, usage across individual app
categories varied wildly. Investment, Health
& Fitness, and Photo & Video categories
increased in usage. Sports, Food & Drink,
and Navigation categories decreasedin
usage as sporting events were cancelled
and Americans sheltered in place. Read the
full story here.
Mobile App
Usage Up 10%

4. ● The increasewasgreater on weekdays
comparedto weekends.Game app
sessionsincreasedby an averageof 21%
on weekdays and8.5% on weekends.
● After the shelter-in-placeorder,game app
usageby day of week was relativelyequal,
but the increaseduringthe week was more
dramatic,indicatingmore “newly found
time” on weekdays.
● ButGen Z played the most games,with
Gen Z gamersup 31% comparedto pre-
pandemiclevels.
● Readthe fullreports hereand here.
Gamingapp
categorysurged
UsersandSessionspeakedin
April as Americansplayedgames
likeeveryday istheweekend

11. Political, COVID-19 and social equality
protests dominated headlines and
drove record engagement compared
to 2019 levels. Read the full report
here.
NewsApps Report
RecordEngagement

13. Investmentapp
categorygrowsamidst
marketvolatility
Thecoronavirus-inducedmarket
volatility causedtheInvestmentApp
categoryto grow onaverage 56%
fromJanuary to June. Read more
here.

15. While the Food & Drink category was
down as a broad category by 18%
during the pandemic, certain segments
within the category performed well.
Recipe and Takeout App usage
increased, by 26% and 6%
respectively, as Americans cooked
more frequently and avoided dining in.
Read the full story here.
Americans
Embraced Cooking
& In-Home Dining

17. ● Monthly iPad app sessions were up 13%
in April compared to January’s baseline
levels. Monthly app sessions on iPhones
only increased 9% in the same period.
● iPad sales also performed well compared
to iPhone sales. Beginning in the second
week of March, iPhone sales dropped to
nearly half of their baseline levels where
they remained through May.
● iPad sales, on the other hand, dropped
only to 77% of January baseline levels.
They quickly rebounded to 90% of the
baseline, where they held until early April.
● Read the full story here.
Americans reached for
tablets while stuck at home
Tablet Usage
Increased during
Shelter-in-Place

20. ● In April 2020, non-essentialbusiness
closedcausing theunemployment rate
to jump to 14.7%. Combinedwith the shift
to working from home and distance
learning, the peak wake up timeshifted
to 7 AM comparedto 6 AM in January.
● In July, the peak wake up timeshifted
back to 6 AM, but the curve remains
flatter than January’s, meaningmore
Americansarewaking up later.
● Readmore here.
Sleep Habits Shifted
Without commutes, breakfast
meetings, or morning gym classes,
Americans are sleeping later

22. Mobile app usage reveals 75% drop in
visits to airports and 70% drop in visit to
financial business centers as Americans
shifted to working from home and non-
essential businesses closed.
Read the full analysis on the drop in
airport traffic here and the drop in
business center traffic here.
Traffic droppedto
Airports and
BusinessCenters

25. ● In-store payment app usage reveals in-
store shopping has nearly recovered from
26% drop in April.
● Similar to the Gaming app category, the
typical weekend spikes for in-store
shopping disappeared, as people spread
out shopping and errands during the week.
● In-store transactions fell the most on
weekends, by an average of 19%,
compared to 10% on weekdays.
● Read the full analysis here.
People now shop less on the
weekend than during the week
compared to before COVID-19
In-Store Payment
App Usage Has
Nearly Recovered

29. ● In January 2020, the advertising-only
revenue model was most common among
app developers on both platforms
● Due to COVID-19, many advertisers
canceled—or at leastpaused—spend,
forcing app developers to rethink their
revenue models.
● By July, app developers diversified revenue
models with in-app purchases.
● Certain app categories rely heavily on
advertising revenue, forcing a shift.
● Read more here.
App Developer
RevenueModels
Began Shifting