I crunched the numbers and ranked the most downloaded and highest earning apps across the App Store and Google Play worldwide in February. On the download side, the chart barely moved. The same seven apps held the same seven spots in the same order as January. Revenue told a different story.
ChatGPT was the most downloaded app in the world, making its way into 51M downloads, according to Appfigures Intelligence. It took a couple of jabs from rival Claude, but that's not stopping it from being the king of AI right now.
TikTok held on to its #2 spot with 40M estimated downloads in its first full month under new US ownership after the Oracle-led consortium took control in late January. The transition caused a bit of a stir early on but the numbers show no disruptions.
Instagram followed right behind with 38M estimated downloads. Something in the silence of Instagram's performance makes me think this is ripe for disruption.
Facebook and Gemini round out the top five most downloaded apps in the world with 31M and 27M downloads, respectively, according to our estimates.
So far, this is the same order as January, but the chart wasn't perfectly stuck. FreeReels, a short-drama app from Singapore-based SKYWORK AI, entered the combined chart at #8 with 21M downloads for the first time. It's worth noting that all of these downloads came from Google Play because FreeReels is available on the App Store but under a different name and with a tiny fraction of the downloads.
The App Store had more shuffling than the combined chart suggests. TikTok climbed to #4 while WhatsApp and Gmail re-entered the App Store's top 10. Google Play, on the other hand, was a near-mirror of January with the same apps in nearly the same order.
Together, the 10 most downloaded apps made their way into 297M devices, according to our estimates. A 12% drop from January, but February is a short month so it's somewhat expected. Daily downloads were fairly similar.
While most top earners saw their numbers dip in February, TikTok went the other direction. It earned an estimated $286M in net revenue, up from $284M in January. That's what TikTok USDS, the new US joint venture, keeps after Apple and Google take their cut.
It's a small increase for a money machine like TikTok, but considering the transition caused technical issues and backlash from its terms update, an increase wasn't exactly the expectation.
ChatGPT was the second highest earning app in the world in February. Our estimates show net revenue dropped a bit to $194M in February, but not enough to worry. ChatGPT is still earning at an incredible rate, but at that level growth is hard.
YouTube came in third with $142M of estimated net revenue, also a touch shorter than January, which seems to be a consistent theme.
Google One and Tinder round out the top five highest earners in the world with $99M and $90M, respectively, according to our estimates.
The bottom half of the chart belonged to streamers: Disney+ at #6, HBO Max at #8, and Peacock at #10 (boosted by Winter Olympics subscribers). The three top streamers saw a total of $231M of net revenue in February, according to our estimates. That's nearly a fifth of the entire top 10's revenue.
Together, the top 10 highest earners brought in just under $1.2B in estimated net revenue, down a bit from January, which seems to cut across many but not all apps.
Short drama apps have slowly been picking up speed (and downloads), challenging traditional streamers and taking away some market share.
In February, FreeReels cracked the top 10 most downloaded apps chart for the first time with a whopping haul of 21M downloads, according to our estimates. What's interesting is that this total comes primarily from Google Play. The app is available on the App Store but under a different name (DramaReels) and downloads a tiny fraction of what it gets on Google Play.
Like most of its competitors, FreeReels is big outside of the US with India and Indonesia responsible for more than half of all downloads.
FreeReels' growth without any tactical or technical advantage is a strong reminder that content is still king. Even in the short drama era.
Politics continued to command the App Store in February but it's sports that are taking over in March, and I expect downloads to be big.
MLB app downloads jumped 43% this February while revenue climbed to $3.5M, signaling a stronger season ahead for baseball on mobile.
Winter Storm Fern triggered massive spikes in weather app downloads. The Weather Channel surged nearly 6x to 50K daily downloads, while a YouTube creator's app hit 31K in a single day.