In brief
During the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak, app downloads in China rose sharply. AppAnnie reported over 222 million App Store downloads in the week starting 2 February, with games and education software showing the biggest increases.
Although the Chinese government has said that the Wuhan coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) outbreak is under control, many areas are still enforcing community controls, and residents are required to stay at home to reduce crowd gatherings and mutual infection. Against this backdrop, statistics indicate that app downloads in China have surged, driving the mobile gaming market.
According to AppAnnie's statistics, in the week starting 2 February, downloads of apps on China's App Store exceeded 222 million. The average weekly download volume in the first two weeks of February was 40% higher than the average for the whole of 2019, while revenue generated by games during the Lunar New Year period was 12% higher than the previous year. This coincided with the time when China began to implement widespread community control measures.
AppAnnie's report stated that this year's downloads in China remained strong after the Lunar New Year, showing that students and workers are using mobile apps to replace the needs of their daily activities. Downloads normally fall after the New Year, but this year the situation is clearly different. The most pronounced increase in downloads was in the games category, followed by education software, which is presumed to be used for distance learning. However, this trend was not seen in other regions such as Japan and South Korea.