Duolingo is Speaking the Language of Success - Here are the Numbers

Ariel Ariel
12/29/23

This is a single insight from This Week in Apps - Seasonal Surprises. Check out the full article for more insights.


It seems like everyone was trying to learn a language in 2023, and there's one app at the center of that - Duolingo!

Duolingo had a magnificent year in terms of both downloads and revenue, reaching new all-time highs for both.

Let's have a look at the numbers.

According to our App intelligence, Duolingo's net revenue in 2023 rose to $339M. Net means what's left after Apple and Google take their fees.

That's a 57% increase when compared to last year's revenue and a whopping 2,725% increase when compared to 2018!

There are no surprises when we look at where the revenue is coming from - 70% came from the App Store and 30% from Google Play, which is very common for revenue. And the biggest country, by far, is the US with 51% of the revenue in 2023.

According to our estimates, the UK, Germany, Canada, and Japan round out the top 5 countries. Each with a single-digit share of the revenue. No other country has a double-digit share.

And it's not just the revenue.

Duolingo saw 134M new downloads in 2023 from the App Store and Google Play, according to our estimates. That's 30% higher than 2022's haul and 179% higher than 2018's. Not nearly as high as revenue but very healthy for an established leader.

Looking at revenue in the context of downloads one thing is clear, in addition to growing downloads, Duolingo's big achievement is how well it's able to turn downloads into revenue and how to turn revenue into more revenue.

Part of that growth is a new tier Duolingo that brings AI (with ChatGPT) to language learning called Max. It also happens to be Duolingo's most expensive plan.

I expect to see even more growth in 2024. Or, in the most studied laguage on Duolingo (after English), ¡Vamos!

App Intelligence for Everyone!

The insights in this report come right out of our App Intelligence platform, which offers access to download and revenue estimates, installed SDKs, and more! Learn more about the tools or schedule a demo with our team to get started.

Are you a Journalist? You can get access to our app and market intelligence for free through the Appfigures for Journalists program. Contact us for more details.

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.

Tagged: #business

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