China has surpassed the United States as Apple iOs' largest market, which has been reigning the top spot since 2010, according to a new report from app intelligence firm App Annie published on Thursday (Oct. 20).

China gained more than $1.7 billion in the third quarter this year from apps and in-apps purchases, ahead by over 15 percent from the U.S. Furthermore, China users' app spending jumped over five times the amount they were spending merely two years ago, 9to5 Mac noted.

Like Us on Facebook

The surge is greatly driven by games, which account for at least 75 percent of China's app spending. Although freemium apps are more preferred than paid downloads, it appears that in-app payments performed good enough to pull China's revenue charts up, according to Mashable.

Next to games, entertainment apps have the biggest revenue gains in the country. Apps such as iQIYI, Tencent Video, and Youku led the video streaming category.

Chinese communication apps including QQ, Momo, and Inke have also driven a significant amount of revenue by incorporating video streaming into their platforms. App Annie predicts that videos can become a "mainstream component" in social apps and can drive in-app purchases through subscriptions and feature upgrades.

Growth in the non-game sectors including entertainment, social networking, books, and photo and video applications is also underway. They have all more than tripled in revenue from the year prior, Tech Crunch reported.

The report also forecasts that China's momentum will continue by the end of the decade. And China will continue to become the biggest driver of revenue growth for the App Store, the Quartz noted.

Tagsapple, IOS app store, Apple app store, Apple app store revenue, Apple iOS