App revenue from mobile phone users around the world climbed to new heights in the first half of this year, nearly reaching $65 billion, market tracker Sensor Tower said Monday. Apple and Google saw their respective mobile app shops thrive as the Silicon Valley giants remained under fire for the power they wield at their respective marketplaces. Preliminary figures from Sensor Tower indicate that $64.9 billion was spent across the App Store and Google Play in the first six months of this year in a 25 percent jump from the same period in 2020. Sensor Tower projected that $41.5 billion would be spent at Apple’s App Store during the first half of this year on subscriptions and apps, including in-app purchases such as virtual items for game characters. Google Play was expected to generate a total of $23.4 in revenue by the end of June. Video-snippet sharing sensation TikTok was the top grossing non-game mobile app, with users spending more than $920 million in an increase of 74 percent from the first six months of last year, according to Sensor Tower. Google-owned video streaming platform YouTube was the second biggest non-game revenue generator, with users spending some $565 million there, the market tracker estimated. Globally, spending in mobile games hit $44.7 billion in the first half of this year, up nearly 18 percent from the same period in 2020, according to Sensor Tower.