There's been a lot of talk of people leaving major news outlets for the likes of X and Bluesky, but election week downloads tell a slightly different story.
I looked at downloads of all major news outlets during election week and compared them to the prior week. Can you guess who won without looking at the chart?
Fox News was the winner in terms of growth with downloads growing 519% week over week - the most downloads the app has seen in a single week this year. Our estimates show downloads rising from 19K to 119K.
CNN came in second with downloads rising a massive 413%. Like Fox, this was CNN's best week of downloads this year - and not by a close margin. Unlike Fox, CNN's downloads started higher at 46k and rose to 236K, according to our estimates.
AP News ranked third with downloads rising 253%, the app's best week this year, but overall much lower in absolute terms.
The New York Times rose 85% and the Wall Street Journal rose just 3%.
In comparison, X's downloads rose just 11%. But... X's downloads are muuuuch higher than all news apps combined. We estimate X's downloads rose from 1.9M in the week prior to the election to 2.1M during election week.
ChatGPT's mobile app is no longer alone in AI, but Appfigures estimates show it is still the revenue leader by a wide margin.
HBO Max filled its biggest remaining European gaps in 2026. The UK brought the biggest mobile audience, while Germany and Switzerland showed stronger revenue depth.