Brazil App Market Statistics (2023)

Brazil has one of the fastest growing and largest app markets, which has seen impressive growth in the past few years. The market surpassed $1 billion in annual revenue in 2021 and it seems likely that the market will continue to grow in the coming years, considering its young population and strong economic growth.

According to Sensor Tower, Brazil surpassed the United States to become the second largest market by App Store and Google Play downloads behind India. Around eight percent of global downloads in 2022 were by users in Brazil.

Increasingly, Brazil is emerging as a gaming powerhouse. It has the tenth-largest gaming market worldwide, with almost 40 percent of those games designed for mobile. In 2020, Wildlife Studios was recognised as the country’s first unicorn achieving a valuation of $3 billion.

Inspire user action, spend and loyalty with Remerge

Access millions of in-app ad placements and run re-engagement campaigns to boost user lifetime value and increase revenue.

Contact us

Gaming apps earn more than half of total spend on all apps in Brazil, but other sectors such as dating, social and food delivery have also grown in popularity. Streaming apps are experiencing a boom and regular paid TV services Claro Brasil and SKY Brasil have recently launched mobile apps to tap into that market.

Users in Brazil spent more than 5.4 hours per day on mobile in 2021, data.ai reports, making it one of three countries which surpassed five hours per day on apps. This is a substantial increase from pre-pandemic levels, as users spent more time at home and on their phones.

Work is underway to expand access to high-speed internet and ownership of smartphones. 5G coverage is now available in 22 cities in Brazil, according to GSMA. Brazil’s telecoms regulator required 5G standalone rollout as part of its spectrum auction and the core network has now been completed. This could speed up development of new apps which rely on 5G improved functionality and grow the market further. Private companies are also working on private 5G networks, including Nestlé.

We have collected data and statistics on the Brazilian mobile app market. Read on below to find out more.

Key Brazilian App Market Statistics

• The Brazilian app market generated $1.4 billion in 2022, up from $1.1 billion the year before
• There were 143.4 million smartphone users in Brazil in 2022
• 10.6 billion apps were downloaded in Brazil in 2022, up from 8 billion in 2019
• Shein was the most downloaded app in 2022 with 52 million downloads
• The top grossing app in Brazil in 2022 was Globoplay, with $25.2 million in revenue

Brazilian App Market Revenue

The Brazilian app market surpassed the $1 billion threshold in 2021 and has grown to $1.4 billion last year.

Brazilian app market annual revenue 2020 to 2022 ($bn)

Brazilian consumer spend per user 2020 to 2022 ($)

Brazilian App Market Revenue by App

Entertainment app Globoplay was the top grossing app in Brazil in 2022, earning $25.2 million.

Brazilian revenue by app 2022 ($mm)

Source: AppFigures

Brazilian Smartphone Users

The number of smartphone users in Brazil has been rising in recent years and hit 143.4 million in 2022, up from 109.3 million the year before.

Annual Brazilian smartphone users 2017 to 2022 (mm)

Brazil Smartphone Population

Two-thirds of Brazilians used a smartphone in 2022, up from 51.4% in 2021.

Brazilian population smartphone usage 2017 to 2022 (%)

Time Spent on Apps in Brazil

Brazilians spent 195.7 billion hours on apps in 2022, similar to the previous year but an increase of 10 billion hours from 2020.

Hours spent on mobile apps in Brazil 2020 to 2022 (bn)

Brazilian App Market Downloads

More than 10 billion app downloads have been seen in Brazil each year since 2020, an average of 74 downloads per person in 2022.

Brazilian app downloads 2016 to 2022 (bn)

Brazilian downloads per user 2020 to 2022

Brazilian Downloads by App

Shopping apps Shein and Shopee led the download charts in 2022, closely followed by Brazilian government app gov.br.

Brazilian downloads by app 2022 (mm)

Sources: Apptopia, AppMagic