Windows 8.1 adoption continues to grow, games was the most popular category in Windows Store and other interesting stats

In the past few months, Microsoft has been sharing details about recent Store trends across categories, markets, and more. These information on the general trends help developers determine what types of apps to build or where to focus their development efforts. Data from the Windows Store is presented alongside Windows Phone Stores, allowing them to make decisions for all the apps they publish regardless of the device(s) you target. Find some of the interesting data below,

Windows: Windows 8.1 adoption continues to grow; in September the majority of downloads (around 70%) of Windows Store apps were made by customers running Windows 8.1.

Windows Phone: Windows Phone OS 8.1 adoption is growing and became the primary download OS version for Windows Phone apps in September. Downloads from Windows Phone devices running OS 7.x represent less than 5% of all downloads.

In August, Games was the most popular category for all devices, followed by Music & Videos, Social, Entertainment, and Tools & Productivity. Of note: Windows downloads are more highly skewed towards games than Windows Phone.

Windows Store is available in 242 markets, and Windows Phone Store is available in 191 markets. As you localize your app for Windows consumers outside your home market, consider which markets are generating the highest downloads.

Offering your app in English only will only cover about 25% of Windows Phone customers, though it covers a larger percentage of tablets and PCs users. Adding Spanish, French, Mandarin, Russian and German increases coverage to more than 75% of the base.

Read more interesting stats at Windows team blog.