App addiction? The average adult spends 5 hours a day playing mobile games

By Karen Tumbokon Published June 11, 2015

No matter how many apps you have on your smartphone, a recent Nielsen study shows that you probably only use 30 of them on a regular basis each month. Chances are, most of your favorite apps are games, video streaming, or music listening apps, and you’re using them an awful lot more than you used to.

Although monthly app use doesn’t seem to be increasing, the time spent in each app is skyrocketing. In the past two years, the time consumers spent engaging with select apps has increased by a whopping 63 percent.

Recommended Videos

Nielsen says the most popular category of apps is “entertainment,” but this includes apps like mobile games, weather apps, ebooks, and sports apps. In Q4 2014, the gaming subcategory, saw the highest usage of any app type in the entertainment app sector. On average, mobile users spent 10 hours and 2 minutes playing games each month. Of course, apps that stream music, videos, and movies follow right behind the games subcategory.

1 of 3

nielsen app usage report 2014 top best apps for store google play — Image used with permission by copyright holder

nielsen app usage report 2014 average number of apps used per month — Image used with permission by copyright holder

nielsen app usage report 2014 average apps used per person — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The increase in entertainment app usage is staggering, and the trend also crosses over into overall app use. Back in 2012, consumers spent more than 23 hours engaging with their favorite apps in the four quarter alone. During the same timeframe in 2014, app use reached 37 hours and 28 minutes. The new figure marks a substantial increase, and it indicates that users are engaging with certain apps repeatedly over time.

However, increased app usage seems to have only affected a few chosen apps. Just last summer, Nielson reported the number of apps being used has only slightly increased over the past few years. When it comes to comparing recent numbers by gender, it turns out that men use 27.2 apps per month and women use 26.3 apps per month.

Nielsen’s data comes from a willing group of 5,000 panelists across demographic groups, races, and ethnicities. Nielsen’s panel is made up of 58 percent Android and 42 percent iOS users. While we’ve seen the app marketplaces grow, app developers are still continuing to battle to be part of the handful of apps that are being used on a daily basis.

You can read the full report here for more interesting stats.

Former Contributor

Karen is a technology, music and entertainment writer. Originally from New Jersey, Karen began her writing career in music…

Topics

Phones

I went hands-on with Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. It’s peak foldable in an old garb.

It may not look like a fresh start, but underneath the familiar chassis, there's plenty of thoughtful engineering tweaks.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra

Samsung just wrapped up its glitzy Unpacked event, revealing three new foldable phones and a pair of smartwatches. While my heart flutters for the pocketable Galaxy Z Fold 8, it’s the Ultra variant that truly feels like a refinement. Interestingly, when you look at the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra for the first time, you might mistake it for the Galaxy Z Fold 7.

Both of them look identical, and Samsung has not made any visible changes on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra for it to stand out from its predecessor. Color options, obviously, are fresh this time around, but there are a few changes that have been made under the hood, and they make this phone feel like a practically rewarding iteration.

Phones

Fold 8 Ultra vs. Fold 7: Upgrades across the board, but is the Ultra really worth the upgrade?

From battery capacity to camera hardware, here's a full comparison between the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and Galaxy Z Fold 7, and whether upgrading actually makes sense.

Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra vs. Fold 7

Foldables age differently than regular smartphones or flagships. But why do I say this? It's the hinge and the foldable aspect that wins buyers over in the first place, not the specifications that get outdated every single year. That's precisely why anyone still carrying last year's Galaxy Z Fold 7 is asking a fair question today: does Samsung's freshly unveiled Z Fold 8 Ultra genuinely earn an upgrade, or does the Fold 7 still hold its ground?

And for shoppers who skipped last year's model entirely and are weighing their first foldable purchase, the calculus is totally different. A now-discounted Fold 7 might undercut the Ultra by a considerable sum, and that could matter to those looking to spend on the form factor, not the latest specifications.

Phones

Samsung makes it easier to run multiple apps on Galaxy Z Flip 8’s cover screen

Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip 8 now runs 16 apps on its cover screen.

Galaxy Z Flip 8 cover display

Samsung is finally making the Galaxy Z Flip's cover screen much more useful. With the new Galaxy Z Flip 8, you no longer have to rely on workarounds to access more apps without unfolding the phone. Instead, Samsung has expanded native support on the FlexWindow, allowing 16 apps to run directly on the outer display and also making it much easier to launch virtually any other app.

The update addresses one of the biggest complaints Flip users have had for years and brings Samsung up to the level of rivals like Motorola, whose Razr series has long offered a more flexible cover screen experience.