The time spent in apps that are outside the top 25 titles in terms of usage time has increased to a greater extent than for those at the top of the rankings, according to analyst firm Flurry — suggesting that independent developers are making progress.

Flurry found that the amount of time consumers spend in the top 25 apps (in terms of total usage time) increased by just 1 per cent between the first and third quarter of 2014.

In contrast, the titles ranked below the top 25 — described by Flurry as “torso and tail” apps — saw usage time increase by 21 per cent.

Flurry said the trend suggests that independent developers are not only “surviving attempts by large players to consolidate the ecosystem” but are “thriving” if time is used as a metric.

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Flurry, which was recently acquired by Yahoo, noted that developers from 180 countries have added more than 110,000 applications on the Flurry network in the past nine months.

“It looks like these developers will continue their relentless effort to reach the more than 1.5 billion devices worldwide and earn a portion of consumers’ time,” Flurry noted.