A new report from App Annie revealed that application downloads from Google Play exceeded downloads from Apple’s App Store by around 60 percent compared to statistics from the same time period last year. Although the Play Store saw a fair share of growth, iOS downloads managed to earn more money during Q3 2014, with a gap of nearly 60 percent. It’s possible that these changes could be due to Google Play’s expansion into emerging markets where people typically don’t download paid apps.

According to App Annie, markets like Brazil, India and Indonesia have seen steady growth over the last couple of years. The research firm’s findings revealed that games play a major part in Google Play’s earnings, saying “huge increases in earnings in the US and South Korea, where games were responsible for nearly all of Google Play’s Q3 revenue growth in each country.”

Some of the standouts from the report suggest that social media and messaging apps are on the rise, with newer entries like Facebook Messenger surging across Android and iOS. In a similar instance Foursquare also experienced success by separating its mobile platforms with the release of its Swarm app.

India’s Hike Messenger’s user base grew past 35 million, which could explain why Google is reportedly developing a new chat app targeting emerging markets.

(via TNW)

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