A Battle for Productivity - The Most Downloaded Apps in the World
This is a single insight from This Week in Apps #134 - Is It Finally Happening???. Check out the full article for more insights.
I started in reverse, but this week I also ranked the most downloaded apps in the world in September. And while I'm going in reverse, total downloads dropped 5% in September when compared to August.
Let's have a look at the list:
TikTok was the most downloaded app in the world in September according to our App Intelligence. It added 54 million new users from the App Store and Google Play in September, which isn't as many as it did in August, but very close. It also got dangerously close to Instagram on Google Play, which should be a warning for Meta.
Meta might not care because it controlled the remaining 4 of 5 top apps with Instagram in the lead followed by Facebook, WhatsApp, and Messenger. Together, the quartet saw 154 million new downloads from the App Store and Google Play.
A few interesting insights in no particular order:
- Google's productivity tools, Sheets and Docs, are outpacing Microsoft's rivals, but not by that much.
- Top Widgets edged its way into the list on the App Store side after being the #1 app in the US for a few days. I suspect the downloads came from ASA.
- Snapchat lost about 4 million downloads in September. Is BeReal to blame?
- CapCut, TikTok's video editor, is back! It made its way into the 6th spot in the combined list with 26 million downloads.
FYI - This is the first time I'm including CapCut's China version in the total which is why it's a bit higher than what you'd expect.
According to our estimates, the top 10 most-downloaded apps in the world made their way into 331 million devices in September. A little under a half belong to Meta. Wow. That's a 5% drop from August's total, which is pretty significant but considering who's at the top, probably has something to do with summer ending.
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All figures included in this report are estimated. Unless specified otherwise, estimated revenue is always net, meaning it's the amount the developer earned after Apple and Google took their fee.
