Duolingo has had amazing success on the App Store and Google Play seeing its revenue continue to defy the norm and grow consistently and efficiently.
That's why I was surprised when Duolingo announced the death of its mascot, Duo the Owl in January.
The easy answer is that it's a PR stunt - and it certainly is - but did it work?
While it looked like a surprise, Duo has been sick for a long time. I say that from having seen the app's icon for more than a year now, showing the green owl in various states of sickness.
Planters, the peanut company, did something similar in 2020 by killing their mascot (the big peanut with a monocle and a top hat). They subsequently brought him back to life a month later as a baby peanut. It was weird, but Mr Peanut was 104 years old and was ready for a refresh.
Duo wasn't that old, but if we're following Planter's campaign, Suo will be back very soon.
Looking at the downloads, the stunt worked! Duolingo's new downloads reached a new all-time high in the initial week of the campaign.
Our App Intelligence shows downloads in the week of February 10th (the campaign started on the 11th) rose to 4.3M, more than a million downloads higher than 2025's weekly average and three times higher than the average just a few years ago.
Revenue wasn't affected by the stunt, but with Duolingo's ability to trun downloads in revenue, the influx of new users will likely drive revenue up soon.
Duolingo is already hinting at a way to bring DUo back by completing lessons, so I suspect this campaign isn't over.
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