National Cheeseburger Day Led to a 790% Increase In Downloads For This App - It's Not McDonald's Or Wendy's

Ariel Ariel
9/15/23

This is a single insight from This Week in Apps - Play to Win. Check out the full article for more insights.


I love a good food for downloads campaign, and although we saw a few this summer, we haven't seen nearly as many as I'd expected. Not from the big names, at least.

This Monday marked National Cheeseburger Day. I didn't know that was a real thing but it is. And all the big names took part by offering a free or discounted cheeseburger for those using their mobile apps.

Sounds pretty simple, right?

Well, the names I expected to see the most new downloads actually didn't. And the one that did, wasn't even on my list.

McDonald's, the name I expected to see the most growth, didn't. Downloaded did grow. According to our estimates, McDonald's went from around 36K daily downloads to 57K downloads last Saturday. That's a hefty 58% increase, but it's not as much as the winner of this bunch.

Wendy's, which happens to be my favorite of the bunch, saw downloads rise 160%, going from a daily average of around 12K to 32K on Saturday, according to our estimates.

And those downloads are from the App Store and Google Play combined.

Burger King, the other popular name, saw downloads rise the least, just 25%, from a daily average of 12K to 15K on Saturday.

Dairy Queen's On a Roll!

Dairy Queen has been on a roll lately with its app, converting free food into massive downloads.

DQ pre-announced this campaign leading to a spike in downloads even before the giveaway started. Its downloads rose 790%, from a daily average of 20K to 178K on Tuesday. Yes, Tuesday!

DQ's downloads dropped since but not by much. The app has seen more than 90K downloads, every day, since that announcement and into the weekend.

Summer is over but I don't expect DQ to stop growing. Now I just need a DQ in NYC.

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Tagged: #food

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