The most downloaded apps in the world

From strategically finding love to helping researchers search for extraterrestrial life – there's literally an app for almost everything these days.

Therefore, it is no surprise that apps have become one of the largest consumer ecosystems on the planet, with the global app economy estimated at... US $ 6.3 trillion until 2021.

Today's charts draw data from a recent report Sensor Tower's ranking of the 20 most downloaded apps of 2019 reveals that new competitors are emerging and threatening the dominance of more established tech companies – but can they maintain their current position in the rankings?

The champions of the app economy

According to the report, the total number of app downloads grew to 115 billion in 2019, including nearly 31 billion downloads on the App Store and 84 billion on Google Play.

The social media giant Facebook It has four of the five most downloaded apps of 2019: Facebook, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram. Collectively, they boast impressive... 16 billion downloads – with WhatsApp occupying the top spot for the fourth consecutive year.

The growth in the short video category is apparent. The video creation app Likee It entered this year's ranking and is in sixth place, with the majority of 330 million App downloads coming from India.

The app allows users to edit videos using a wide variety of effects and competes directly with... TikTok – a lip-syncing app that entered the rankings in 2018 and now threatens WhatsApp's position at the top of the rankings.

Which apps are rising in the rankings?

TikTok is the newest platform to transform its users into viral sensations, raising... US $ 177 million in 2019. This is equivalent to more than five times its 2018 revenue. TikTok also overtook Instagram in 2018, breaking Facebook's position among the top four apps in the world.

TikTok is owned by the Chinese technology company ByteDance, a privately held company. most valuable of the world – and 78% of TikTok's total revenue in the fourth quarter of 2019 came from its home country.

In addition to numerous short video participants, new entrants from other industries continue to rise in the rankings. While they are not yet on the list of most downloaded apps, their recent success could change that.

Streaming services

Netflix is the only streaming service among the 20 most downloaded apps, but the launch of Disney+ could change that.

Despite launching in November, Disney+ became the second most popular new app of 2019. In one month, the service generated one recipe of US $ 50 million .

To put that into context, Disney+ acquired 34% of all streaming app downloads in less than three months, or 30 million subscribers – half of Netflix's current 60 million subscribers in the United States. This number also surpasses Hulu and Amazon Prime's numbers for the entire year of 2019.

Games

With 2.4 billion With people playing mobile games in 2019, games are also expected to become a major player in the app economy.

Two popular console franchises, Call of Duty e Mario Kart , recently entered the mobile market to become two of the most successful games in the category.

The free mobile version of Call of Duty It had the second-best quarter of any mobile game of all time, with 170 million downloads worldwide. Only Pokémon GO had a better quarter, with more than 300 million facilities when it was launched in 2016.

The success of these apps can be attributed to their already established consumer base and the evident shift in more gamers migrating to mobile platforms as smartphone technology and processing speeds increase.

Countries leading the app economy

The app economy is also being driven by growth in emerging markets, including China, India, Brazil, and Russia, thanks to faster internet speeds and increasing smartphone adoption rates.

Specifically, the increasing digitalization India is generating significant growth in the market. The country witnessed nearly 5 billion app installs in the last quarter of 2019 – surpassing the US with just over 3 billion installs.

Note: Since Google Play is not available in China, the country has been excluded from this chart.

India's demand can be attributed to the fact that half of its 1.3 billion population has under 25 years old .A younger, more tech-savvy audience has made India TikTok's primary market, with 45% of the first downloads of the app in 2019.

The App Economy 2.0

With a surge in user spending and seemingly endless opportunities for innovation, the global app economy shows enormous promise, but it is still in its early days.

Consumers spent US$$ 101 billion on apps globally in 2018. That's twice the global sneaker market and almost three times the size of the oral hygiene industry.

—Danielle Levitas, EVP of Global Marketing & Market Insights at App Annie

Increased consumer spending, combined with other forms of monetization such as advertising and mobile commerce, may soon allow the app market to surpass the trillion-dollar revenue mark.

While many experts claim that the app industry is dead on the tracks, it's safe to say that these predictions are now being irrefutably challenged.