While we're talking proxies, one interesting chart I've been keeping my eye on is downloads of the Tesla app. The app you need to drive your Tesla if you have one.
Those downloads are a great proxy for car sales because you don't need the Tesla app for anything else. It might overestimate, but we're rounding anyway.
We estimate that downloads in 2021 reached 2.1M, a 24% increase from 2020 and a whopping 150% increase from 2019. That means there were roughly 2 million new Teslas on the roads this year.
I'm a Tesla fanboy, so to me, these numbers are very encouraging, but what I also find interesting is that when you look at the monthly data, the chart above, every month this year was higher than 2020, and some by a lot.
With so many cars sporting a huge touch screen in them, I wonder if Tesla is planning to start its own app store. I know a thing or three about app stores, so if Elon needs help, I'm an email away.
May’s top app charts were mostly stuck, but ChatGPT kept growing in downloads while TikTok kept leading revenue and Google One climbed into the top five.
Apple's WWDC 2026 app song named a tiny slice of the App Store, but the apps behind the lyrics are far bigger, older, and more successful than average.