New Delhi, Jan 12 (IANS): The global consumer spending on mobile apps across iOS, Google Play and third-party Android app stores in China reached $170 billion in 2021 (up 19 per cent from last year as people downloaded 230 billion apps last year, setting another record, a new report showed on Wednesday.

The app download growth is driven by emerging markets like India. In the top 10 mobile markets, a staggering 4.8 hours a day were spent on mobile.

According to App Annie's "State of Mobile 2022" report, consumers spent a record 3.8 trillion hours on mobile in 2021.

"Mobile is the go-to device of the future. The big screen is slowly dying as mobile continues to break records in virtually every category - time spent, downloads and revenue," said Theodore Krantz, Chief Executive Officer or App Annie which is the leading mobile data and analytics company.

In 2021, Publishers released 2 million new apps and games, bringing the cumulative total to 21 million while advertising spend topped $295 billion, up 23 per cent year over year and is estimated to top $350 billion next year.

Mobile gaming grew to $116 billion, an increase of 15 per cent.

Apps earning more than $100 million in consumer spending grew by 20 per cent last year.

Led by TikTok (an increase of 90 per cent globally outside of China), 7 of every 10 minutes was spent on either social, photo and/or video apps.

"Worldwide consumer spend on dating apps surged past $4.2 billion (55 per cent increase from 2019), said the report.

Time in shopping apps reached 100 billion hours, up by 18 per cent year over year, led by fast fashion, social shopping, and big-box players.

"Food and drink apps hit a new milestone at 194 billion sessions in 2021 (up 50 per cent year over year)," the findings showed.

"The future will be based on an immersive entertainment experience you create. You won't watch movies, you'll star in them," said Krantz.