Fewer Apps Built with React Native Shipped in 2022

The debate between native and non-native development has been raging for years. Some believe native development is the only way to develop, others prefer non-native for the convenience and the ability to ship across platforms quickly.

I personally fall somewhere in between, but what I have to share isn't my opinion here but rather numbers, which paint an interesting picture.

And I say interesting because things changed in 2022...

React Native is one of the most popular solutions for true non-native development. Using our SDK Intelligence (available in Explorer) I looked at the number of new iOS and Android apps and games built with React Native* released by year

The popularity of React Native grew a lot in 2018. The number of apps and games built with React Native grew 111% in 2018. The rate slowed down, but popularity continued to grow, up double-digits every year since.

Except for 2022...

In 2022, the number of apps built with React Native dropped by 43%. In more absolute terms, 2021 saw 79K new apps and games with React Native while 2022 saw just 45K. And the downward trend was pretty consistent across both iOS and Android apps.

If you read last week's newsletter you might remember that app releases dropped in 2022 across both platforms. That's certainly a part of why non-native app releases dropped. But, if you recall, releases dropped by about 12% while React Native releases dropped by more than 5x that.

I think the drop isn't a coincidence. Both Apple and Google are hard at work to simplify native development. A trend I don't expect to stop any time soon.

There's a lot more to dig into with this data so if you have any specific questions you want to see me cover in a future report please let me know.

Note: The number of apps reflects apps that have the React Native framework in their code but doesn't necessarily mean it's powering the entire app.