App Annie always has great insights into mobile business, and the company’s latest report reviews the most popular iOS apps to date. The report has separate lists for global popularity by download and by revenue, with separate lists for games. Pandora took the crown as the highest-grossing iOS app, while Spotify ranked fifth on that chart. The strong performance by Pandora was credited to its U.S. audience base, where it was among the top 10 apps by monthly active users by July 2015. Spotify was within the top 50 apps by MAU in the U.S., but did hit the top 10 in the UK. The top downloads list didn’t have any music or entertainment apps, but focused more on utility or communication.
Pandora and Spotify have been in the top tier of past App Annie reports that focused solely on music apps, but it’s impressive to see both commanding strong revenues even when compared with other industries.