• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, January 2, 2020

 Worldwide, Christmas-day spending across the App Store and Google Play store was more than $277 million, per new data from Sensor Tower. That beat last year’s Christmas-day binge by over 11%, according to the mobile analytics firm.    

This year, it also represented a larger share of December app spending (about 5%), compared to last year.

For the entire month of December, Sensor Tower estimates consumers dropped nearly $5.1 billion on apps available on Apple and Google’s respective stores.

In large part, the firm attributed the stronger Christmas-day sales to new device sales, first-time mobile users and consumers flush with gift-card credit.

On Christmas day, app buyers blew the majority of their money (approximately $210 million) on games. The perennially popular app category represented 76% of revenue across both stores, and grew about 8%, year-over-year.

Leading the in-game sub-category, PUBG Mobile and Tencent’s TiMi studio took in about $8.5 million on Christmas, which was up by 431% year-over-year.

This Christmas, non-gaming apps earned about $67 million, which represented year-over-year growth of 24%.

At the App Store, entertainment apps -- including subscription video on demand (SVOD) services like Disney+ and Tencent Video -- represented about 24% of non-game spending.

Entertainment apps made up 16% of Google Play revenue on Christmas day.

For overall spending on Christmas day, Tinder was the top non-gaming app. Worldwide, the dating service raked in gross revenue of nearly $2.1 million.

Overall, Apple’s App Store accounted for 70% of spending (or about $193 million), which represented an annual increase of about 16%. By contrast, Google’s Play store accounted for $84 million, which represented only 2.7% growth, year-over-year.

Stateside, Christmas-day shoppers spent 4.8% more on apps, year-over-year.