Top ten most downloaded apps by category

The Facebook app is used almost everywhere for social and business communications. According to Alexa internet Facebook ranks seventh in the global internet usage. WhatsApp is ranked fifth in overall downloads with more than billion plus downloads. It is one of the most popular and widely used chat applications; WhatsApp also supports communication between international phone networks. Instagram was at the sixth position in the most downloaded apps in all categories. It been predicted in that Instagram will see a 5.

Zoom was the seventh most installed app in the overall downloads category. It ranked first in the Apple Store downloads segment and third in Google Play downloads. With nearly This exponential growth of Zoom makes a lot of sense because of the lockdowns implemented all over the world due to the COVID pandemic.

Offices and educational institutes were shut down and to continue working and studying from home, people relied heavily on Zoom for video conferencing and calling.

MX Player is an Indian video streaming and video on demand platform and has over million users globally. Making MX Takatak the eighth of the most downloaded app in the world.

Snapchat is now the ninth most popular app It is a social networking cum messaging application that can be used only through a mobile app. It allows users to chat with other Snapchat users and send snaps in the form of images, videos, and emojis.

Facebook Messenger has managed to be the tenth most downloaded app overall. Facebook messenger is a American messaging app and platform developed by Facebook in Facebook is also one of the most used app in the world. These estimates include only unique installs and do not include pre-installed Apple apps and Google apps. An overview of the top five most downloaded apps in all stores and categories shows the trend that people were leaning towards during this period.

Most apps have seen a dramatic surge in popularity and growth during the months when lockdown and shelter-at-home policies were implemented globally.

Though a lot of industries had to bear the brunt of financial and economical lapses due to COVID, mobile apps and games developers have gained by being digital. Digital products are easily accessible and not affected much by physical restrictions when compared to lots of other services. A challenge for these apps with the end of the quarantine would be user retention. Facebook is the most downloaded application worldwide.

The Facebook app is used almost everywhere for social and business communication. In the first month of , TikTok managed to supersede WhatsApp as the most downloaded app in the world according to the data collected by SensorTower. The one surprise is a fintech app, Cash App, a mobile payment service from Square. Other than that, the most interesting difference in the U.

Apptopia also ranks the top grossing apps of , according to its data. Note: games are listed separately. In the U. Important note: all will also have revenue that is invisible on mobile via smart TVs, desktops, bundling services, and other deals. Video is obviously huge on this list, with the streamers and YouTube. But so is dating with Tinder and Bumble. And the Google One cloud storage services and phone backup is clearly reaching a lot of consumers. That likely speaks to its ongoing issues with the departing president and his executive orders calling for its sale.

When it comes to games, Apptopia says that the smash hit Among Us! As the app was a gatekeeper for getting into pubs, the entire country jumped on it, with over 10 million downloads in the first three days. Work-from-home and online teaching have led to three apps — Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet — hitting the top 10 most popular.

China is the outlier, with the Great Firewall blocking almost all of the apps built by US and European companies. WeChat has embedded itself into the Chinese society unlike any app in the West, and continues to expand its platform outward with the integration of Pinduoduo and DiDi. As a side note, DiDi is not represented here as it does not reveal its monthly active users. Analysts have projected it to be in the to million range, and it has an internal target of million by TikTok was on track to hit million downloads in India, however the government banned the app in July.

In this section, we take a look at the ten most popular apps of the year by app category. All values are global unless stated otherwise and do not include downloads from third-party Chinese Android app stores. Among Us is the runaway success story of After struggling to gain a following for two years, it went viral after several YouTube and Twitch streams from popular personalities, and hit million monthly active users in October Roblox also had a breakout year, and is expected to IPO in Facebook also launched its own clone, Reels, on Instagram earlier this year.

The other big winner is Pinterest, which saw a massive uptick in users this year, with its stock price climbing over percent since the start of For businesses, Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams have broadened their services to enable teams to work from home. Discord has also attempted to rebrand itself as a communication tool for everyone, not just gamers. Even with over two billion monthly active users, YouTube saw million downloads in Even though not on the list, TikTok has proven to be a fierce competitor for YouTube, and Google has responded by launching short-form videos on the platform.

Similar for Tencent Video, which is the most popular video streaming service in China. Whether Google can continue to support to well is another question, the past decade of failed music and messaging apps makes it a hard sell. Amazon is the key e-commerce platforms in most countries outside of India and China. In India, Flipkart remains the most popular e-commerce platform, however the difference is less than 1 percent between the two e-commerce services.

Wish and Pinduoduo have shown that the e-commerce market is still open to new platforms. Both sacrifice delivery times and quality control for cost, and have drawn in hundreds of millions of customers. However, in each region Uber Eats is the second largest platform, with more than 20 percent market share. For more detailed analysis on the food delivery apps, read our sector profile. Travel apps have been neutered this year with the coronavirus pandemic halting transport and holidays.

Uber and Lyft saw a 90 percent drop in usage in March and usage is still not near pre-pandemic levels. Airbnb and Booking. Even though it is not on here, Chinese ride hailing app DiDi said it was back to pre-pandemic usage levels in June.

Around the world, teachers have had to adapt learning at all ages to online. Google Classroom, an app that lets teachers easily share files with students, saw over million downloads in Other services, such as Blackboard, are not counted as one, as each institution publishes their own app.

Duolingo continues to be the most popular translation app, with 61 million downloads. It is expected to IPO either this year or next, after breaking the one million paid subscribers mark in Even though dating apps have struggled to grow this year, Tinder still managed over 70 million downloads. It remains the most popular dating app in the world, although Badoo and Bumble are continuing to gain on Tinder in monthly active users.