Store downloads, net revenue and a market model are not one figure

The figure or the record

Three analytics and research documents, read together, show three different bases for a single-sounding word, 'revenue'. Sensor Tower's State of Short Drama Apps 2026 report states its download figures are 'based on estimated downloads from the App Store and Google Play, excluding pre-installs, re-downloads, and downloads from third-party Android marketplaces'. Appfigures' February 2026 chart post states that, 'unless specified otherwise, estimated revenue is always net, meaning it's the amount the developer earned after Apple and Google took their fee'. Omdia's February 2026 press release builds an engagement comparison on 'Q4 2025 mobile usage data from Sensor Tower', an analyst finding resting partly on another analyst's estimate.

What the documents establish

Store-measured downloads (Sensor Tower's basis) count app installs, estimated from sampled store data. Net revenue (Appfigures' basis) counts developer earnings after a store commission is already removed. Gross in-app purchase revenue — which Sensor Tower's own IAP figures appear to follow, without stating net or gross — would be a third, larger number for the same transactions. None of these three is a modelled total addressable market of the kind Omdia or Media Partners Asia publish, which add advertising, web payments and licensing a store never sees. A single 'market size' claim can legitimately come from any of these bases, and each produces a different number from the same underlying activity.

Scope and caveats

None of the three documents cited here states a reconciliation between these bases; each names its own method without translating it into the others' terms. Omdia's release illustrates a further layering risk: an analyst firm's own modelled total can rest partly on a second firm's already-estimated data, without the public release stating how much of the final number depends on that borrowed input. A reader who sees two headline 'market size' figures from two firms is not necessarily seeing two independent measurements of the same thing; one may be partly built on the other.

What to watch

This is an editorial checklist, not a finding: before comparing two market-size claims, check whether each names its unit (downloads, net revenue, gross revenue, or a modelled total), its currency, its period, and whether it discloses reliance on another firm's estimate as an input.

• Does the figure state net or gross of app-store commission, and which stores it covers?
• Does a modelled total-market figure disclose which parts rest on another firm's own estimates?
• Are two headline figures from different firms measuring the same activity, or different slices of it?

A number is not comparable to another number just because both are called 'revenue'; the bases set out here — store downloads, net IAP, gross IAP, and a modelled total — belong to different questions, and reconciling them requires knowing which question each firm actually answered.