San Francisco, Jan 11 (IANS): In total, worldwide app downloads reached 36.1 billion in Q4 2021, a 2.7 per cent year-over-year increase.

The mobile app space is still in a state of transformation amid the ongoing global pandemic. Categories such as Shopping, Finance, and Entertainment came out on top at the end of 2021, while others are still trying to bounce back.

According to Sensor Tower, Finance and Tools were among the quarter's top categories with 39 per cent and 26 per cent year-over-year growth on Google Play, respectively.

This year, cryptocurrency and investing apps gained momentum with non-fungible tokens (NFTs) emerging as a hot trend. The report also digs into the success of Instagram last quarter as the first app from Meta to reach the top of the downloads chart for a quarter since WhatsApp in Q4 2019.

Meanwhile, record-breaking eight mobile games, including PUBG Mobile from Tencent, Honor of Kings from Tencent, and Genshin Impact from miHoYo, have generated more than $1 billion globally from the App Store and Google Play last year.

PUBG Mobile, localised as Game For Peace in China and Battlegrounds Mobile in India, and Honor of Kings rank as the number 1 and number 2 revenue generating mobile titles worldwide this year, accumulating $2.8 billion each, up 9 per cent and 14.7 per cent year-over-year, respectively.

Ranking at number 3 last year was Genshin Impact, which has stormed to $1.8 billion in revenue so far in 2021.

Launched on September 28, 2020, publisher miHoYo continued to provide the game with a plethora of updates, regularly adding new islands, characters and features to keep players engaged.