2021: the average human spends 4.8 hours on their smartphone per day

Last year, mobile users around the world spent 3.8 trillion hours on their smartphones
. This represents a record of nearly 5 hours per day per person.

For the smartphone, the year 2021 was that of all records. The mobile data analysis specialist App Annie published the report a few days ago State of Mobile, in which he delivers astonishing information on the extent to which the smartphone has taken on our society, symbolized by the 3,800 billion hours spent by mobile users looking at their devices last year, a new record. On average around the world, we spend 4.8 hours a day staring at our favorite little screen, which is also a record.

Mobile users are spending more and more time on social networks and photo and video applications

With nearly 5 hours awake on our mobile worldwide, we are witnessing a 30% growth in this average compared to 2019. Three countries even reach or exceed the 5 hour daily mark: Brazil (5.4 hours), Indonesia (same) and South Korea (5 hours). Then follow Mexico (4.8 hours), India (4.7 hours), Japan (4.6 hours), Singapore (4.5 hours), Turkey (4.4 hours), Canada ( 4.4 hours), the United States (4.2 hours) and Russia (4.1 hours).

The time spent on a smartphone by a French user also increased between 2019 (2.7 hours) and 2021, when it reached 3.6 hours, well below the world average. France is only 15^and in the matter.

Users are spending more and more time on so-called social applications (in other words social networks), but also on photo and video tools. These three categories account for 70% of the time spent on mobile in 2021. But be careful, prioritizing applications like YouTube or TikTok more does not mean a disruption of current habits. ” Consumers have transformed historically “non-mobile” time into time spent on apps and games “says App Annie.

Record spending, with crazy growth in the United States

In more detail this time on uses, the year 2021 was the scene of some 230 billion application downloads and 170 billion dollars in consumer spending. Unsurprisingly, China (98 billion), India (27 billion) and the United States (12 billion) form the top three countries with the highest number of downloads in 2021. France points to 17^and rank, with 2.1 billion downloads.

Where the data is interesting is in terms of consumer spending. In the United States, we can speak of phenomenal growth. In two years, the USA has gone from 24.5 billion dollars to 43 billion dollars. Each year, the country’s spending increases by around 30% due in particular to the generalization of mobile games and in-app subscriptions.

France does better in the world hierarchy (10^and) with 2.25 billion dollars spent by mobile users in 2021, compared to 2.06 billion in 2020 and 1.69 billion in 2019.

Source: App Annie via infogram