App Category Insights

Spiritually Remote: How the Pandemic Disrupted America’s Practice of Faith on Mobile

edanilo — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 06:11:47 +0000

Spiritually Remote: How the Pandemic Disrupted America’s Practice of Faith on Mobile

By Estelle Laziuk, Flurry Analyst

edanilo Thu, 03/11/2021 - 22:11

2021-03-12

Tags

Mobile Insights

App Category Insights

When the coronavirus pandemic hit, U.S. states issued restrictions on social gatherings, forcing houses of worship across the country to shut down. Religious leaders adapted to these restrictions by bringing worship services and rituals online, in ways that keep religious communities engaged and connected, despite being physically apart. As a result, mobile apps and streaming platforms, once built as a supplement to in-person religious gatherings, became the primary point of connection for many congregations. In this report, we examine how the pandemic has disrupted the way Americans practice their faith on mobile, through the usage of bible apps.

Flurry Analytics, owned by Verizon Media, is used in over 1 million mobile applications, providing aggregated insights across more than 2 billion mobile devices per month. For this analysis, Flurry measured mobile usage of bible apps using the median number of sessions across apps. This helps us understand how usage has evolved on average over time, without being heavily influenced by a highly popular app in our sample.

An Initial Surge, And Subsequent Slump

Let’s start by looking at how usage of bible apps has shifted during the pandemic.

In the chart above, we show daily usage of mobile bible apps from January 2020 through February 2021. Each rise and fall across that topography shows how bible usage cycles between Sundays and other days of the week, with Sunday usage spiking. Within the blue area, we identify four time periods:

Normal: Under normal circumstances, people check their digital bible on average 155% more on Sundays than during the rest of the week. This is because people mainly use their mobile bible app during worship services to access and read scripture, according to the National Congregations study. For the dominant religion in the United States, Christianity, worship services take place on Sundays — hence these repeated spikes on Sundays.
Orders: In mid-March, U.S. states began rolling out shelter-in-place orders following the National Emergency declared over the coronavirus outbreak. As part of these orders, houses of worship were required to close. When people could no longer attend their congregation in-person, usage of bible apps grew in unprecedented ways, doubling within a month. This rise in religious practice aligns with about one third of Americans sharing that they frequently read scriptures to help cope with the stresses of the pandemic, according to a survey by Pew Research. In addition, a surge in usage of bible apps isn’t that surprising as there was a novelty to online religion, which went from being one option to being the only option to practice faith during challenging times.

With most people ordered to stay home all days of the week, our data also shows that the normal schedule with spiking usage on Sundays changed considerably. With in-person worship newly banned, people were no longer engaging with their digital bible on Sundays as distinctively as during normal times.
Post-Orders: At the end of April, as the lockdown and lack of in-person gatherings was wearing on, the novelty of practicing faith on mobile appeared to wear off. Our data shows that bible app usage dropped by half compared to peak usage during orders. Most regular religious attenders said that their congregation began to stream or record its services around that time, according to survey data by Pew research. And 72% of regular worshippers watched these virtual religious services. As a result, we think the worship streaming experience, which helps bring a greater sense of community, took over some of the bible study time on mobile.
New Normal: Since early September, there has been a return to a distinct cyclicality between Sunday and other days of the week, during which Americans check their bible app 71% more on Sundays. In this New Normal, some congregations have reopened with limited capacity, which could explain the return of bible usage spikes during in-person worship services on Sundays.

In-Person Worship Banned, Faith on Mobile Down

Now that we’ve looked at how Americans changed their bible reading habits on mobile throughout the pandemic, we quantify how bible app usage has changed due to the pandemic. To estimate that shift, we compare usage during the most recent “New Normal” week in February versus a year before, pre-pandemic under “Normal” circumstances.

In the chart above, we show a side-by-side comparison of bible app usage per day during the last week of February in 2020 versus 2021. This corresponds to comparing the “Normal” pre-pandemic section of the previous chart versus the most recent “New Normal” time period. On the left, in dark blue, we show last year’s “Normal” pre-pandemic levels. And on the right, in light blue, we compare the most recent “New Normal” during which in-person worship is restricted.

Compared to pre-pandemic levels, America’s practice of faith on mobile has declined by an average of 17% across all days of the week. People aren’t using their bible app as much as before COVID-19, except on Monday, when usage is stable. On Sundays, the Christian holy day, usage of bible apps tumbled by 49%. We think this is the result of fewer people needing their app to follow along with sermons during worship service, as these are now mostly being held on streaming services as opposed to in-person.

This indicates that many Americans have put their digital bible back on the shelf in the New Normal. And that when religious ceremonies are no longer held in-person with the rest of the community, many people no longer read the bible on their smartphone during Sunday service. This does not necessarily mean that people stopped engaging with their faith altogether, as they could instead be streaming worship services on Sundays.

Summary: Our Shifting Needs During Crises

Through the COVID-19 crisis, and the resulting shift from in-person to virtual worship, we’ve seen Americans’ worship habits on mobile change considerably.
The “digital awakening” of congregations initially led to a surge in digital bible reading, with usage of bible apps doubling within a month. This was likely the result of a growing need to practice faith to help cope with the stress of the pandemic, as survey data suggests.
This unprecedented rise in practicing faith on smartphones subsequently tapered down. With 72% of regular worshippers watching religious services virtually during this time, and many experiencing it for the first time, we think many people left mobile bible apps behind in favor of streaming services, which helped bring a stronger sense of community via video and real-time interactions.
Faith on mobile suffered its largest loss of usage (49% drop compared to pre-pandemic levels) on Sundays, when digital bibles were used to follow along with sermons during worship services. This could suggest that attending congregations in-person with the rest of the community helps keep Americans’ mobile bible reading habits stronger.

Because COVID-19 is such an unusual and extended crisis, there may be more long-lasting changes in people’s religious behaviors to come. We’ll continue to update you on important shifts in mobile behavior during the pandemic. For the latest reports, subscribe to the Flurry Analytics’ blog and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn

Mobile Photo & Video Apps Get Some Valentine’s Day Love

edanilo — Fri, 19 Feb 2021 02:09:47 +0000

Mobile Photo & Video Apps Get Some Valentine’s Day Love

By Estelle Laziuk, Flurry Analyst

edanilo Thu, 02/18/2021 - 18:09

2021-02-18

Tags

Mobile Insights

Holiday Mobile Insights

App Category Insights

With the first Valentine's Day during COVID-19 in the books, we analyzed how Americans used mobile applications this year to celebrate their relationships. In this report, we reveal the top behavioral shifts on Valentine’s Day by analyzing the app categories that saw the largest growth in usage.

Flurry Analytics, owned by Verizon Media, is used in over 1 million mobile applications, providing aggregated insights across more than 2 billion mobile devices per month. For this analysis, Flurry measured mobile app usage in the United States using the number of app sessions. We set January 31, the most recent Sunday prior to Valentine’s Day, excluding the Super Bowl, as the baseline and then compared growth against that baseline for each category. Note that we excluded the Social category from our analysis, including dating apps, because of the unusual concentration of usage in just a handful of properties, which Flurry does not measure.

Let’s find out which app categories gained the most usage during Valentine’s Day.

In the chart above, we show a side-by-side comparison of indexed mobile app sessions on Valentine’s Day in blue versus on a typical Sunday in black, for the four app categories that experienced the most growth on Valentine's Day.

The top spot goes to the Photo & Video app category, which grew by 73% on Valentine’s Day compared to a typical Sunday. We speculate that this surge is coming from many photo and video editor apps offering special frames, filters and stickers for Valentine’s Day. Additionally, photo and video apps were likely used more than usual to capture special moments and memories. This 73% jump is impressive for the Photo & Video category, which typically experiences lesser growth during other holiday periods. For instance, this category only increased by 42% last year during Valentine’s Day, and grew by 51% on New Year’s Eve compared to a typical Thursday in December. Growth may have been stronger this year on Valentine’s Day due to social distancing, leaving more quiet time for couples.

The Restaurant app category saw the second largest growth in usage, with a 35% increase. With the reopening of restaurants in the majority of U.S. states, growth in Restaurant app usage outpaced that of Take-out, up by 11%, and Recipe, down by 3%. This means that more people used their phone on Valentine’s Day to find nearby dining locations than to order food or cook a meal at home. It also indicates that on Valentine’s Day, the Restaurant category rebounded from its 36% drop earlier in the pandemic, when most restaurants were still closed.

Lastly, the Music app category experienced a 9% rise in usage on Valentine’s Day, indicating that people played more music than usual on their phone to celebrate and make this day special.

Valentine’s Day this year drove a significant spike in Photo & Video app activity. Restaurant, Take-out, and Music also saw a substantial growth in usage. This unusual uptake in mobile activity, likely amplified by the pandemic, reflects how special this celebration is for many Americans. Stay tuned for more reports covering shifts in mobile app behavior during upcoming holiday events. For the latest reports, subscribe to the Flurry Analytics blog and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Mobile App Messaging Spikes As Holiday Celebrations Go Virtual Amid COVID-19 Outbreak

LisaMoshfegh — Fri, 15 Jan 2021 18:01:36 +0000

Mobile App Messaging Spikes As Holiday Celebrations Go Virtual Amid COVID-19 Outbreak

By Estelle Laziuk, Flurry Analyst

LisaMoshfegh Fri, 01/15/2021 - 10:01

2021-01-15

Tags

Mobile Insights

Holiday Mobile Insights

App Category Insights

Christmas and New Year celebrations were dim this year. The resurgence of Coronavirus cases along with travel restrictions and new curfews crushed many Americans’ plans to celebrate the holidays in-person with family and friends. According to a survey by NCSolutions, 79% of Americans said they would spend Christmas and New Year’s Eve at home. In this report, we look at the remarkable spike in holiday mobile app messaging as many Americans turned to virtual celebrations to cope with restrictions on holiday gatherings.

Flurry Analytics, owned by Verizon Media, is used in over 1 million mobile applications, providing aggregated insights across more than 2 billion mobile devices per month. For this analysis, Flurry measured sessions, meaning the number of times users opened their mobile app, across a sample of Messaging and Photo & Video apps. For both categories, we use the first Sunday of December as a baseline, setting that value to 100. This removes any unrelated gain or drop in sessions that happened earlier in the year and gives a cleaner year-over-year comparison.

Let’s start by looking at holiday mobile app messaging levels during 2020 versus 2019.

In the chart above, we show daily sessions across mobile messaging apps in December, with a focus on Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve. We compare messaging app sessions this year in blue versus last year in gray.

On Christmas day, usage of messaging apps grew by 25% compared to last year. We think Americans who weren’t able to spend Christmas in-person with relatives turned to their smartphone this year to connect remotely and send greetings.

On New Year’s Eve, fireworks were scarce or virtually live-streamed. Plus, with nighttime curfews in place and mandatory social distancing, more Americans spent New Year’s Eve home than ever before. As a result, more people connected virtually to celebrate the end of the year, driving mobile messaging up by 10% year-over-year. This increase coincides with the record-breaking volume of messages exchanged on WhatsApp during New Year’s Eve. The widely used mobile app experienced its highest number of calls since the app launched ten years ago.

With more pronounced spikes in mobile messaging this holiday season, we next looked at how photo & video activity fared.

In the chart above, we show daily sessions across mobile photo & video apps in December, with a focus on Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve. We compare photo & video app sessions this year in blue versus last year in gray.

During Christmas Eve, usage of photo & video apps remained similar to prior years, slightly decreasing by 3% compared to last year. By contrast, on New Year’s Eve, photo & video apps experienced a sharper decline, down 9% over last year. With many New Year’s Eve parties and fireworks canceled this year, we think photo & video app usage dropped due to fewer social moments and memories to capture.

COVID-19 changed the way people celebrated Christmas and New Year. Usage of messaging apps spiked as many Americans connected remotely, while usage of photo & video apps dropped given muted celebrations due to COVID-19 restrictions. With the upcoming Saint Patrick’s Day parade canceled, we anticipate more celebrations this year to go virtual and drive pronounced spikes in mobile messaging. For the latest reports, subscribe to the Flurry Analytics blog and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Coronavirus Boosts Black Friday Mobile Shopping and Trounces In-Store Visits

LisaMoshfegh — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 19:07:37 +0000

Coronavirus Boosts Black Friday Mobile Shopping and Trounces In-Store Visits

By Estelle Laziuk, Flurry Analyst

LisaMoshfegh Fri, 12/04/2020 - 11:07

2020-12-04

Tags

Mobile Insights

Holiday Mobile Insights

App Category Insights

e-Commerce

Black Friday is a crucial event for retailers, kicking off the holiday shopping season. According to a recent Google report, however, the pandemic has reduced U.S. retail foot traffic by 20% since May. Additionally, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that growth in consumer spending has been slowing each month since July. These trends paint a grim outlook for battered retailers who were hoping for a strong Black Friday rebound. In this report, we examine how COVID-19 impacted both mobile and in-store shopping from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, including a focus on Black Friday.

Flurry Analytics, owned by Verizon Media, is used in over 1 million mobile applications, providing insights from 2 billion mobile devices per month. For this analysis, Flurry measured mobile shopping activity using sessions. To estimate the change in visits to U.S. retail stores, we averaged the number of active mobile devices in 5 of the country’s largest downtown shopping districts: New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston and San Francisco.

Let’s look at how the Black Friday shopping period fared this year compared to last year.

In the chart above, we show the percent change in shopping activity during the period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday from 2019 to 2020. We display the change in shopping visits to retail stores on the left in red, and the change in mobile shopping on the right in blue. Over the five-day shopping period, in-store shopping tumbled by an average of 41% and mobile shopping grew by an average of 19%. Because shopping has been altered so dramatically in 2020, let’s take a closer look at some of the drivers of this year’s outcome.

Retailers Push Consumers to Shop Digitally

This year, in order to accommodate restrictions due to the pandemic, retailers opted for more online deals rather than driving foot traffic into stores. The majority of retailers encouraged consumers to shop online by reducing in-store-only offers and increasing online deals. Adapting this way, we would have anticipated Cyber Monday, which is already the busiest online shopping day of the year, to grow even more during 2020 relative to other days over the long weekend. However, while Cyber Monday mobile shopping did indeed grow this year, other days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday grew more. In 2020, the days that saw the greatest increase for mobile shopping were Black Friday and the Sunday before Cyber Monday, with 24% and 23% respective growth over last year.

We think this happened, in part, because retailers expanded online discount periods during 2020 due to COVID-19. In an effort to stimulate slumping sales, discounts were offered across all five days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, rather than just on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The result of this was a pop in per-day mobile shopping growth rates across each of the five days of this shopping period versus prior years. In a prior Flurry report, our analysis showed greater spikes in mobile shopping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, not across the entire long weekend as we’re seeing this year. The difference in per-day growth rates this year are all within 10 percentage points of each other, which is unusual. Let’s next look at online sales, which include sales from mobile devices.

Record Breaking Online & Mobile Sales

This year’s Cyber Monday broke sales records. Digital revenue, which combines both online and mobile sales, reached $10.8 billion, according to a report by Adobe. That’s a 20% jump over the $9 billion spent digitally on Black Friday last year. While mobile shopping itself didn’t deliver a record growth rate on Cyber Monday, our data reveals that mobile shopping session growth outpaced that of online traffic, with mobile growing by 17% and online by 13% compared to last year. This suggests that among online shopping channels, on-the-go mobile shopping experienced a particularly high growth this year on Cyber Monday. Let’s next look at how Black Friday shopping shifted this year in retail stores.

The Collapse of In-Store Shopping

COVID-19 brought a considerably different Black Friday in-store shopping experience to consumers, from mask requirements to the limited number of shoppers allowed inside stores. With maximum customer capacity restrictions, this year’s wait times in stores were lengthier. Combined with an increased risk of exposure to the virus, these restrictions discouraged retail store trips, which plummeted by 41% during Black Friday week compared to last year. On Black Friday, the day that typically drives the most consumers to shop for limited in-stores deals, in-store visits declined by 40% compared to last year, as many in-store deals shifted online.

Coronavirus pushed this year’s Black Friday shopping online, including on mobile, where shopping grew by 19%. While the pandemic boosted online shopping this year, it also busted in-store visits by 41%. With Coronavirus cases still on the rise, we anticipate a continued concentration in digital shopping, with continued growth specifically on mobile. We’ll continue to update you on mobile shopping and other mobile app and device trends. For the latest reports, subscribe to the Flurry Analytics blog and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn

The Top 5 Mobile App Trends of 2020

LisaMoshfegh — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 17:45:49 +0000

The Top 5 Mobile App Trends of 2020

By Lisa Moshfegh, Product Marketing

LisaMoshfegh Tue, 12/01/2020 - 09:45

2020-12-01

Tags

Mobile Insights

App Category Insights

Mobile Gaming

Mobile News Consumption

ios

Android

2020 has been a tumultuous year. A global pandemic claimed the lives of nearly 1.5 million people, a worldwide movement emerged for racial justice, and American political division created widespread concern. With COVID-19 forcing unprecedented social distancing, the mobile app economy has also experienced radical shifts. App consumption has exploded, Gen Z is gaming more than ever, and mobile news consumption dwarfed that of 2019. And Apple’s announcements of impending data policy rule changes have upended an ecosystem. In this report, we’ll revisit the biggest mobile app trends in 2020.

1. Society Ground to a Halt

As COVID-19 began to spread, non-essential business closed, schools transitioned to distance learning, and most recreational activities were paused or canceled. Governments issued stay-at-home orders to further limit the spread, which forced the most people to stay home. The transition to working from home and reduction in travel turned financial districts and airports into ghost towns. And with restaurants closed, many people chose to cook for themselves or order takeout. In fact, while usage of recipe and takeout apps increased during shelter-in-place, usage of restaurant apps declined by 36%. In addition, we analyzed traffic to both airport and financial districts across the United States to gain insights into people’s movement.

In the chart above, we show the percent change in daily mobile app users in U.S. financial districts beginning in March, when the pandemic went into full swing, comparing each month to baseline usage from January. We display this change in blue against the rising number of new coronavirus cases in gray. Starting in April, travel to financial districts plummeted by 60% compared to pre-coronavirus levels. Read the full report here on the dramatic decline of traffic to America’s largest financial districts.

2. App Category Booms and Busts

The onset of COVID-19 forced most Americans to shelter-in-place as non-essential businesses and schools closed. As people suddenly found themselves with more free time, many reached for mobile devices to help pass the time. And while aggregate app usage is up, usage across individual app categories varies wildly. Let’s check out the top movers.

In the chart above we show the percent change in monthly sessions compared to the January 2020 baseline for the top changing app categories. On the right, we rank app categories based on their app usage growth since the beginning of the year. A surge across Investment apps were the result of wildly volatile financial markets. And as gyms and yoga studios closed, Health & Fitness apps spiked by helping people maintain a workout regiment. On the other end, Sports and Food & Drink suffered double-digit declines as sporting events were cancelled and restaurants were forced to close. Read our full analysis of all app categories from January to July.

3. Mobile Gaming Exploded

As people spent unprecedented amounts of time at home, with limited recreational activities, mobile gaming filled the void. In an earlier report, we concluded that the quarantine created such an unusual surge in mobile gaming that every day was like Sunday. The typical weekend spikes were erased, and every day saw elevated usage. On average, mobile gaming sessions were up by 21% compared to the pre-coronavirus levels! Although much of this growth was driven by Gen Z who found themselves with minimal schooling and limited recreational activities, mobile gamers of all generations were gaming more.

In the chart above, we plot 2020 game sessions by user in dark blue. The light blue line represents 2019, to illustrate the increase in usage that occurred this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, mobile gamers averaged 17% more gaming sessions than in 2019. Considering that gaming is one of the largest app categories, even modest increases are remarkable.

4. Mobile News Consumption Soared

The first two months of 2020 began with a standoff with Iran, the impeachment trial of a sitting U.S. President, and the death of a basketball icon. Then COVID-19 began to spread, forcing governments to issue shelter-in-place orders that led to economic uncertainty. As the country attempted to recover from the initial COVID-19 wave, the death of an unarmed African American man at the hands of the Minneapolis police department triggered a global movement calling for racial equality. These headlines culminated with a tumultuous campaign for the United States Presidency that resulted in the most votes ever cast in a U.S. election. All of these stories led to massive spikes in mobile news consumption. Let’s take a look.

In the chart above, we chart daily mobile news app sessions in the U.S. for both 2019 and 2020. We show 2019 in light blue and 2020 in dark blue to demonstrate just how significant this year has been for mobile apps in the News category. You can read our earlier report covering mobile news consumption for the first half of 2020 here and our second report specifically highlighting the leadup to the U.S. Presidential election here.

5. Apps Reduced Ad Revenue Dependence

Many app developers’ bottom lines got hit with a double-whammy in 2020. First, the economic uncertainty due to COVID-19 caused many advertisers to reduce ad spending. And second, Apple announced at WWDC that iOS developers would have to gain permission from end users to share data with third parties, which is expected to reduce CPMs for iOS apps running ads. Although Google has yet to announce similar privacy measures, there is speculation that Android app developers could face a similar fate. Let’s review what changes app developers made to their business model in light of these two shifts.

In the chart above, we analyze the change in share of advertising-only revenue models compared to a January 2020 baseline to understand if app developers are in fact moving away from advertising-supported business models. We separate the two operating systems, with Android on the left and iOS on the right. Typically, Android apps rely more on advertising than iOS apps, largely due to Google simplifying the process of incorporating ads into mobile apps. Given this reliance on advertising as a source of monetization, Android developers were much more impacted by the reduction in ad spend due to COVID-19. However, the chart shows consistent recovery throughout the year as advertising spend slowly increased. iOS developers, on the other hand, were less impacted by the reduction in ad spend, but are still moving away from an advertising-only revenue model, likely because of the impending privacy changes Apple is expected to launch in early 2021. You can find our full report on shifting business models for app developers here.

Make sure you subscribe to the Flurry blog and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn for the latest reports on the mobile industry, including holiday forecasts and 2021 predictions.

The Flurry blog (https://www.flurry.com/blog/) is an independent blog and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc.

Mobile Game Usage Shows Remote Learning Adversely Impacts Low Income Students

edanilo — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 21:48:51 +0000

Mobile Game Usage Shows Remote Learning Adversely Impacts Low Income Students

By Estelle Laziuk, Flurry Analyst

edanilo Tue, 11/10/2020 - 13:48

2020-11-10

Tags

Mobile Insights

App Category Insights

Mobile Gaming

The spread of Coronavirus in the U.S. has not only threatened the economy, but also the American educational system. Over the course of 2020, U.S. schools have radically adapted to meet student needs. For instance, to offset the disruption caused by March school closures, most districts switched to pass-fail grading, with only 23% of districts maintaining the traditional A-F grading scale, according to research from the University of Washington Bothell.

After the summer break, all but four states implemented either hybrid or remote learning models, with some mix of online classes, digital assignments, and reinstated standard grading. At the same time, varied factors at home can create uneven learning experiences for students, such as access to laptops, reliable internet, and parental support to name a few. With some parents working or taking care of siblings, among other factors, would students engage academically? In this report, Flurry measures academic engagement by looking at one of the most common activities that directly competes with classroom and study time —playing mobile games on smartphones.

Flurry Analytics, owned by Verizon Media, is used in over 1 million mobile applications, providing insights from 2 billion mobile devices per month. For this analysis, Flurry curated a sample of game apps. We excluded users located in the four states that required students to physically attend school: Texas, Florida, Iowa and Arkansas. For household income levels, we used U.S. Census Bureau data and then adjusted each state by its cost of living index using data from the Council for Community and Economic Research. Finally, we used the Pew Research Center disposable income definitions for income tiers. Note that our study looks at Gen Z users between the ages of 13 to 24, since we do not collect data for users under the age of 13.

Mobile Game Usage Reveals Academic Engagement

Let’s first look at how Gen Z engagement with school has changed over the course of 2020, using mobile game usage as a signal.

In the chart above, we show the number of daily Gen Z mobile game app sessions from January through October. That’s represented by the entire span of the blue area. Each rise and fall across that topography shows how game usage cycles between weekdays and weekends, with weekend usage spiking. Within the blue area, there are four time periods. The first section is “Normal Learning” during which students physically attended classes before COVID-19. The second section entitled “School Closures” captures the end of the 2019-2020 school year after schools began closing due to the new pandemic. The third section shows the time period during which most schools were on summer break. Finally, the “New Normal Learning” shows the return to school for the 2020-2021 academic year during which the significant majority of schools are teaching by video conference.

Above the blue area chart are three education categories where we combined the middle two sections, as play behavior was very similar across these two middle periods. They go as follows 1) “In-person Learning” —the normal way school is attended— and which serves as our baseline, 2) “Interrupted Learning” when students had highly varied demands for attending class and doing schoolwork, or were simply on summer break, 3) “Remote Learning” when the standards for school have returned to normal, except that all but four U.S. states started including remote learning.

The key takeaway is that during Coronavirus, academic engagement has varied considerably depending on whether students were attending school in-person, on summer break or learning remotely, as revealed by mobile game usage.

In the “Normal Learning” part of our chart, take a look at how often students played games when they attended school in-person. This time period has the most distinct cyclicality, with lulls during the week and pronounced peaks on the weekends. Comparing weekday to weekend usage during that period shows that students played games 43% less during the week than on the weekend. In other words, as students engage with school during the week, they typically play games significantly less than on weekends.

During the period of "School Closures", most students were suddenly at home on school days. Although many schools began to facilitate distance learning, the transition to a different instruction format in times of economic and health crises required a period of adjustment. Survey data shows that by May 7, only 37% of instructors had interactions with the majority of their students at least once per day when teaching remotely. And 71% of instructors shared that they were spending less time on student instruction than before the pandemic. In another survey, 72% of teachers said that pausing formal evaluations and grading made the most sense during this time. We therefore consider this period as "Interrupted Learning". Without at least daily class sessions supervised by the instructor, many students had additional time to fill. Our data indicates that their usage of game apps during school days surged by 46%, reaching similar levels as during the summer break, when game app usage is only 1% lower on weekdays than weekends. In other words, when students did not have at least daily classes supervised by the instructor, either due to school being interrupted or on summer break, students switched to playing games significantly more on weekdays, and as a result engaged less academically.

Most recently, with the return to school in a remote capacity, daily teaching time supervised by the instructor picked up again. Survey data shows that compared to the Spring 2020 semester, real-time remote instruction this Fall grew from being adopted by 21% to 92% of U.S. school districts. With more class time guided by instructors, game app usage during school days has gradually decreased, which suggests a return to normal academic engagement.

Remote Learning Drives Elevated Gaming

Let's next find out whether Gen Z users engage more with school when it is in-person or remote, using mobile game usage as a signal.

Comparing in-person learning in early Spring to remote learning in early Fall may introduce some seasonal variations in game usage between Spring and Fall semesters that are not due to the shift in instruction type. To better isolate this change, we next compare this year’s Fall 2020, when learning is remote, to the same time period last year in Fall 2019, when learning was conducted in-person. Additionally, in order to factor out the change in users over time, we look at game usage per user, as opposed to usage across all users.

In the chart above, the light blue area shows the number of daily game app sessions per user during Fall 2019, when classes were still held in-person. The bold blue line shows the same metric this Fall 2020, when learning has shifted online. Compared to last year, students have more time to fill, and our data shows that they’re playing games an average of 15% more during school days than last year. In other words, in-person learning curbs smartphone game usage more than remote learning. This suggests that students better engage with school when it is in-person.

Remote Learning Adversely Impacts Low Income Students

Let’s next look at how academic engagement has changed during Coronavirus by student income level.

In this last chart, we show the change in game usage during school days (Monday - Friday) throughout 2020 by student income level. We represent the upper income level in orange, middle income in grey, and lower income in blue. For this chart, we set usage for each income segment against its respective January baseline.

During the in-person learning time period, all income levels exhibit similar usage. After schools closed in mid-March, all students —regardless of their income level— increased their usage of game apps, with the largest surge in usage coming from the upper income student segment. During the summer break, only the lower income segment continued to play games at this elevated level, while upper and middle income students decreased their usage. With many parents working from home during weekdays this summer, the upper and middle income students may have benefited from more at-home parental supervision or restrictions on playing games compared to lower income students, whose parents may have been more concerned and affected by the economic downturn.

Most recently, with the return to school remotely, lower income students play games 87% more than in January, while the middle and upper income segments play games only 2% more and 22% less respectively. This suggests that during the pandemic 1) remote learning leaves lower income students behind, who in turn play games during school days more than their peers 2) the lower the student’s household income, the greater the increase in mobile game usage is during remote learning, indicating lower academic engagement.

Note that during in-person learning in February and March, when class time was the most continuously supervised by the instructor, there was very little disparity in game usage during school across the three income groups. This suggests that more guided and supervised class instruction effectively curbs smartphone game usage across all income levels.

The primary takeaway from this study is that Gen Z mobile game usage has changed considerably during the school year marked by COVID-19. Our data shows that remote learning has adversely impacted student academic engagement, as their game usage during the week has increased by 15% compared to last year. This adverse effect is especially strong for lower income students, who have increased their usage of games by 87% compared to last January. Lastly, we found that during remote learning, the lower the students' household income, the more likely they are to increase their usage of mobile games, and therefore to engage less academically. For more reports covering important trends during the pandemic, subscribe to the Flurry Analytics blog and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Mobile App News Consumption Explodes as U.S. Presidential Election Hangs in the Balance

LisaMoshfegh — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 02:31:35 +0000

Mobile App News Consumption Explodes as U.S. Presidential Election Hangs in the Balance

By Estelle Laziuk, Flurry Analyst

LisaMoshfegh Thu, 11/05/2020 - 18:31

2020-11-05

Tags

Mobile Insights

App Category Insights

Mobile News Consumption

2020 has featured some of the biggest events in modern history —a global pandemic, an impeached U.S. President, widespread protests over social injustice, and a wildly volatile economy. According to Pew Research, 83% of Americans believe that who wins the presidency during this unprecedented time matters more now than it has over the past two decades. As a result, the rate of voter turnout has broken levels not seen since 1900. In this report, we look at the remarkable spike in news consumption driven by this year’s U.S. Presidential election.

Flurry Analytics, owned by Verizon Media, is used in over 1 million mobile applications, providing aggregated insights across more than 2 billion mobile devices per month. For this analysis, Flurry measured news consumption using the number of sessions in mobile news apps covering political and current events. We ensured our sample of news apps represents a mix of left, centrist and right leaning news outlets.

Let’s start by looking at news consumption levels during 2020 versus 2019, including news consumption this week.

In the chart above, we show daily news app sessions leading up to the day after the Presidential election, November 4, 2020. We compare consumption this year in dark blue versus last year in light blue.

The first thing you’ll notice is the considerable increase in news consumption around the Presidential Election day this year, dwarfing every news event before it, in both 2019 and 2020. Scanning from left to right, starting with the first presidential debate, the election period this year was marked by a number of news spikes that exceeded news app consumption during the same period in 2019 by nearly 50%. These spikes include typical election events such as debates and conventions as well as one-off news cycles including when President Trump contracted coronavirus or when his campaign website was hacked. And once again, news consumption surged on Election Day, soaring even higher the day after the election. On November 4, as the world eagerly awaited election results, news consumption more than doubled during this year’s election period (Sept 25 - Nov 2), and more than tripled compared to the same day last year.

With political news reaching remarkable heights this year, we further compared news consumption during the 2020 election period to that of 2016.

In the chart above, we show the percent increase in news consumption during Republican and Democratic Conventions on the left-hand side, and Presidential Debates on the right. For each of the events, we measure the increase in news consumption compared to an average day in its respective month. We show a side-by-side comparison of this year in dark blue and the 2016 Presidential Election year in light blue.

While engagement with the Democratic and Republican Conventions this year did not change considerably compared to the previous elections, Americans this year engaged more with the Presidential Debates, especially the head-to-head debates. News app sessions during the first and third presidential debate increased by 13 and 10 percentage points respectively. With the second presidential debate canceled and replaced by Town Halls this year, news sessions decreased, but only by 1 point. This suggests that Americans engaged much more with the elections this year than in 2016.

This year’s elections have driven significantly higher news engagement compared to both last year and the 2016 Presidential Election. Additionally, this year’s tight race between the two candidates —along with delayed election results— have amplified and extended the surge in election news consumption. With President Trump’s baseless comments regarding election fraud, calls for the vote counting process to stop, and threats that he may not relinquish his office, we anticipate continued spikes in election news consumption post election results. Make sure you subscribe to the Flurry Analytics blog and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to get the latest industry analyses.

Mobile Gaming’s Endless Summer

LisaMoshfegh — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 17:03:27 +0000

Mobile Gaming’s Endless Summer

By Peter Farago, Flurry GM, and Estelle Laziuk, Flurry Analyst

LisaMoshfegh Mon, 10/19/2020 - 10:03

2020-10-19

Tags

Mobile Insights

App Category Insights

Mobile Gaming

Mobile game usage in the U.S. has increased substantially during COVID-19. In a previous report, we showed that mobile game sessions surged by 21% after stay-at-home orders took hold, on weekdays no less! In other words, as people began to work and attend school from home, they also reached for their phones more often to game. In this follow-on installment, we look at what time of the day people are gaming during the week, and the results are surprising.

Flurry Analytics, owned by Verizon Media, is used in over 1 million mobile applications, providing insights from 2 billion mobile devices per month. For this analysis, Flurry hand-curated a sample of gaming apps from a cross-section of subcategories including puzzle, card, arcade, action, player-vs-player and more. Distributing game sessions by hour, we created a daypart view. Note that the time of each game session reflects the time zone in which the session took place. Let’s have a look and then discuss.

In the chart above, we show the percent of game app sessions played each hour of an average weekday in the United States. The grey line shows the daypart curve from September 2019, about one year ago, before COVID-19 dramatically changed societal behavior. And the blue line shows usage in September 2020, reflecting how consumers are playing games now during the ongoing pandemic. Adding up the percent usage of each hour across the day, for either curve, totals 100%.

Comparing the two curves, you’ll notice that last year’s usage has an “S” shape with a lull in the earlier part of the day, presumably as Americans rushed off to school and work, followed by a surge in the late afternoon and evening. This year, usage steps at a similar time in the morning and then steadily increases all the way through prime-time. The result is that usage is 3.9 percentage points greater during the majority of work and school hours this year, from 8 AM to 2 PM, and 4.5 percentage points less during the late afternoon and evening. With decreased in-person interactions, it appears that people are reaching for their phones throughout the day and continuing to game. Let’s next compare game usage this Fall to earlier in the Summer.

For this chart, we show September of this year, still in blue, versus earlier in the Summer in orange. Both periods took place during the pandemic. What is surprising is how much closer September usage this year looks to July. Both September and July 2020 show a relatively even distribution of gaming app sessions throughout waking hours with a steadily increasing trend as the day progresses. Despite summer vacations ending and school resuming, people’s play patterns are very similar to that of Summer.

With remote work and school, gaming usage patterns have flattened out, regardless of the season, losing the distinct “S-curve” displayed during 2019. With most schools and offices still without plans to reopen, we don’t anticipate this trend to change anytime soon. We’ll keep you updated on future important trends in the mobile game industry. For the latest reports, subscribe to the Flurry Analytics blog and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to get the latest industry analyses.

How the Coronavirus Pandemic Impacted Summer Travel in 2020

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 16:16:51 +0000

How the Coronavirus Pandemic Impacted Summer Travel in 2020

By Estelle Laziuk, Flurry Analyst

Anonymous Fri, 09/18/2020 - 09:16

2020-09-18

Tags

Mobile Insights

App Category Insights

When the coronavirus pandemic hit, borders closed around the world and Americans spent months under lockdown. As Summer approached, stay-at-home orders were lifted and many hotels reopened. However, travel destinations and activities remained limited. Travel abroad was restricted, summer camps were canceled, indoor dining at restaurants was shut down, and entertainment activities such as going to museums, movie theaters, and theme parks were not permitted. As a result, COVID-19 crushed many travelers’ Summer plans. What remained possible was visiting outdoor recreation sites including camping and hiking in both national and state parks. In this report, we look at how American summer vacation behavior dramatically shifted between 2019 and 2020 due to Coronavirus.

Flurry Analytics, owned by Verizon Media, is used in over 1 million mobile applications, providing aggregated insights across more than 2 billion mobile devices per month. For this analysis, Flurry measured the number of outdoor recreation visits using sessions across mobile apps that help users plan hiking and camping trips. These apps enable users to reserve camping sites, and find nearby hiking or camping locations through maps and photos of national parks.

Additionally, Flurry estimated vacation trips using sessions across hotel reservation apps. When travelers go on a trip that lasts more than a day, they need to book a place to stay. As a result, we think that hotel reservations are a robust proxy for vacation trips. We do not account for family trips during which travelers do not need to book a hotel.

Let’s first examine the changes in Summer vacation trips using hotel reservations as a signal.

In the chart above, we show the monthly change in total app sessions within hospitality apps compared to a January baseline. We compare this year’s usage in dark blue to last year in light blue in order to identify unusual shifts in 2020. Until March of this year, hospitality industry app usage tracked about as expected, following last year’s trend. However, starting in April, after state officials issued COVID-19 stay-at-home directives, many hotels closed which resulted in a 75 percentage points plunge in year-over-year app hotel reservations. Compared to the January baseline, bookings were down by 54% when it should have been up by more than 20%.

During the Summer holiday months —from June to August— when many hotels reopened and reservations would have usually peaked, the app usage indicators of industry health remained in severe decline, on average 61 percentage points lower than last year. Although most hotels had reopened, they were among the most crowded forms of holiday lodging, which increased the risk of exposure to the virus. Additionally, social distancing measures altered the hotel experience. For example, shared amenities such as spas and swimming pools were often closed. We think this likely deterred customers from booking traditional forms of hotels.

By contrast, U.S. online spending for Airbnb, a hotel-alternative less crowded and affected by COVID-19 measures, jumped by 33 percentage points this Summer relative to last year according to EdisonTrends data. Even though Airbnb reservations rose, accounting for 20% of U.S. market share, hotels still represent 70% of the U.S. lodging market according to Second Measure data. The 61 percentage points drop in hotel Summer reservations therefore indicates that vacation trips this year substantially declined.

Next, let’s see how outdoor recreation visits have changed over the Summer.

In the chart above, we show the monthly change in U.S. sessions on outdoor recreation mobile apps over the January baseline. Until March, this year’s usage of outdoor recreation apps was typical, following the trend from last year. However, in April, following stay-at-home orders, outdoor recreation trips tumbled by 54 percentage points year-over-year. This drop occurred right when hiking and camping activity typically begins to rise in the year. During the Summer holiday months —from June to August— when hiking and camping peaks, outdoor recreation apps hit remarkable record high usage, surpassing 2019’s increase in activities by 41 percentage points.

National parks became one of this Summer’s destinations of choice for many Americans, likely because they can be reached within a day’s drive and planned without much lead time. In addition, various health experts shared ahead of the Summer that the transmission rates of the virus are believed to be lower outdoors than indoors, making national parks an ideal vacation spot during the pandemic.

As evidenced by our analysis of travel apps and outdoor recreation apps, COVID-19 radically changed travel and vacationing trends in 2020. App-based hotel reservations dropped to an unprecedented low during a typically busy Summer season. At the same time, the pandemic brought a significantly larger audience of Summer travelers to U.S. national parks this year.

With the recent wildfires prompting the closure of many U.S. national parks, we’ll keep you updated on future important trends in travel and mobility. For the latest reports, subscribe to the Flurry Analytics blog and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to get the latest industry analyses.

U.S. In-Store Shopping Rebounds After 26% Drop Due to COVID-19

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Aug 2020 14:40:00 +0000

U.S. In-Store Shopping Rebounds After 26% Drop Due to COVID-19

By Estelle Laziuk, Flurry Analyst

Anonymous Wed, 08/19/2020 - 07:40

2020-08-19

Tags

Mobile Insights

App Category Insights

e-Commerce

The Retail category in the United States has been among the hardest hit during COVID-19. This stands to reason as non-essential businesses were forced to close and consumers sheltered at home. In this report, we look at how in-store shopping behavior has been disrupted over the course of 2020.

Flurry Analytics, owned by Verizon Media, is used in over 1 million mobile applications, providing aggregated insights across more than 2 billion mobile devices per month. For this analysis, Flurry selected a sample of apps used by vendors to process in-store transactions. Since these apps are primarily launched only when transactions are executed, we used app sessions as a proxy for shopping transactions. Let’s start by looking at the shift in shopping activity at retail stores during the pandemic.

In the chart above, we compare monthly in-store payment app sessions in blue against retail store sales in orange, from January through July. Retail store sales are seasonally adjusted by the U.S. Census Bureau and cover a broad range of businesses such as clothing, food, electronics and automotive. The first thing you’ll notice is that in-store payment sessions and retail store sales are strongly related, with a correlation coefficient of 0.7. The more frequently consumers make in-store purchases in our sample of apps, the more sales are generated by retail stores, as measured by the U.S. Census. Among other things, this gives us confidence that we are using a relevant sample from Flurry’s data set. When it comes to a shift in shopping behavior, both the volume and amount in dollars of retail transactions began to decline in March, followed by a strong dip in April, and then a steady upward climb from May to July, indicating a solid rebound. Retail sales were most affected from March to April, declining by 13%. This decline of in-store sales is the biggest drop observed by the Department of Commerce since record-keeping started in 1992. To identify more precisely when shopping behavior changed, let’s drill down to a daily view of in-store payments.

The chart above shows that from March 16 to early April, as states began to issue shelter-in-place orders and close non-essential businesses, in-store payment app sessions declined by 26%. Over the next 4 months, in-store payment app sessions steadily climbed back by 43%. As some retail businesses gradually re-opened with curbside pickup, and many states lifted stay-at-home orders, in-store shopping returned to pre-pandemic levels. One interesting thing that stands out is how the shape of the data changed before versus after shelter-in-place orders were issued. Before, you’ll notice many more blue spikes which denote peak days in payments app usage. After, you’ll see more white dips (and fewer blue spikes) which means payment app usage dropped heavily on many more days. The next chart helps show what’s happening; namely that consumers used to make high volume of payments on the weekend (blue spikes), while once shelter-in-place orders were issued, consumers began to reduce weekend payments (white dips). Let’s take a look.

The chart above shows the average percent change of in-store payment app sessions for each day of the week. We averaged sessions from January 1 to March 15 (pre-shelter-in-place orders) in light blue and from March 16 to August 16 (post-shelter-in-place orders) in dark blue. We chose March 16 as the cut-off date since that’s when the majority of shelter-in-place closures took effect in the U.S. and when in-store consumer transactions began to change. Beginning in mid-March, in-store transactions declined across all days of the week by an average of 10%. The likely cause is that consumers are making fewer in-store transactions in order to avoid in-person contact, which increases the risk of exposure to the virus. Instead, a lot of shopping has shifted online. Additionally, what stands out is that in-store transactions fell the most on weekends, by an average of 19%, compared to 10% on weekdays. We believe that working from home has brought about a new weekly schedule where consumers have more time on weekdays to step out and run errands. As a result, we think consumers began to spread their shopping activities more evenly across the week, to open up more time on weekends for leisure activities, and to avoid weekend crowds.

While in-store shopping transactions and retail sales have recovered substantially since the pandemic first struck, consumers unusually continue to shop less on the weekend than during the week. The long shutdown continues to have a lasting impact on the shopping landscape. With the back-to-school shopping season underway, we’ll continue to monitor trends in shopping behavior at retail stores. To get and share our latest mobile insights, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.