Downloads Slow Down in January - The Most Downloaded Apps
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January is officially behind us, which means it's time to rank the most downloaded mobile apps in the world. Downloads have dropped a bunch from December but the ranks are fairly similar.
Actually, only one app dropped out - can you guess which one it is?
No, it's not Threads, which ranked 8th overall in January with 23M estimated downloads. A bit lower than January, when it ranked 6th.
Instagram was the most downloaded app in the world in January. It made its way into 52M devices according to our App Intelligence.
Rival TikTok was kind of behind it with 46M estimated downloads. The two used to be a lot closer but the gap has been growing over the last few months with Instagram on top. That would end if/when TikTok is unbanned in India, but I don't see a clear path to that goal right now.
Facebook, WhatsApp, and CapCut round out the top 5 most downloaded apps in the world in January. If you look close enough you'll see two developers own the top 5 most downloaded apps in the world. That's kind of wild.
And if you're comparing this list to January's you'll notice it's identical. The same 5 apps held the exact same positions but with fewer downloads in January.
The top is very hard to break into, making it even more special to see an app that isn't one of these 5 in there. CapCut was the latest entry pushing down WhatsApp.
The last app to climb to the top was Threads back in July.
So which app disappeared? Spotify. It ranked 10th overall in December but lost to WhatsApp Business in January.
According to our estimates, the top 10 most downloaded apps in the world made their way into 314M devices. About 20M downloads shy of December, which isn't that much of a surprise and also confirmed by The Mobile Download Index, which is showing this decline across the entire store.
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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.
