Apple’s App Store generated almost twice the revenue of Google’s Play Store during Q3, despite the latter holding the upper hand in terms of first time app installations, data from Sensor Tower showed.

Revenue generated from in-app purchases, subscriptions and premium apps totalled $21.9 billion during the quarter, up 22.9 per cent year-on-year. App Store users spent $14.2 billion, up from $11.6 billion in Q3 2018, with Google Play reaping $7.7 billion, up 24 per cent.

However, Google’s storefront accounted for the lion’s share of first-time app installations in the recent period, with 21.6 billion compared with roughly 8 billion on App Store. The total 29.6 billion downloads were up 9.7 per cent on Q3 2018.

Sensor Tower noted installations in China slipped 6 per cent to just under 2.2 billion in the recent quarter, suggesting this is related to a hangover from a block on mobile game approvals during 2018. However, revenue grew 26.9 per cent to $4.1 billion, despite this reduction.

In the non-gaming app category, dating service Tinder held on to its top spot in terms of user-generated revenue, with the figure up 7 per cent to $233 million. Netflix, YouTube, iQIYI and Tencent Video rounded out the top five.

The installation picture was dominated by Facebook titles, with WhatsApp on top, Messenger third, the company’s main app fourth and Instagram fifth. The social media giant’s grip was only broken by ByteDance’s TikTok in second place.

Gaming titles generated $16.3 billion in revenue, up 20 per cent year-on-year, with total downloads across both stores up 17.6 per cent to 11.1 billion.

By revenue, Tencent’s PUBG Mobile topped the charts on $496 million, while installations were dominated by Fun Race 3D from Good Job Games, at 123 million.