I love proxying IRL interactions through app downloads, and this week I have an interesting one for you.
Using downloads of the My Disney Experience, the app those attending Disney parks usually download, it looks like 2023 is going to not only be back to normal but potentially even beat pre-covid attendance.
According to our estimates, the app has reached pre-covid downloads in December, with daily downloads topping 80K per day.
That's where downloads were in February of 2020, before covid shut down most IRL things, including the smiling mouse.
Downloads dropped by a factor of 10 and although they've been showing signs of growth in 2021, the return to normal is finally visible at the end of 2022.
Keep in mind, not every download is a visitor and not every visitor downloads the app, so this is a loose proxy. It's still a good proxy. And if we consider other IRL apps that are making a comeback post-covid, this growth is unlikely to stop when pre-covid levels are met.
I expect to see downloads, and visits, grow a lot in 2023, the year things "really" go back to normal.
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