Lionel Sujay Vailshery
Research expert covering cloud computing and emerging tech industries
Mobile app usage - statistics & facts
The app market has been characterized by volatility in the last five years. Consumer spending and user engagement have been driven by factors such as the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, and later by the adoption of generative AI on mobile with the launch of the ChatGPT app. In 2024, AI chatbot apps experienced an increase in downloads over 112 percent year-over-year.
Consumer spending on mobile apps increased to 36.2 billion U.S. dollars during the second quarter of 2024, 12 percent compared to the corresponding quarter in 2023. Entertainment apps were the highest-grossing mobile app categories during the first quarter of 2024, with almost nine billion U.S. dollars in revenues, while health and fitness apps generated around 1.2 billion U.S. dollars during the period.
Despite legal woes that might bring a TikTok ban in the U.S., the Chinese-developed social video platform continues to command a high level of attention. In 2024, U.S. users spent approximately 406 minutes on average on TikTok, a small decrease compared to 2023, while text-based social forum Reddit saw an increase of 13 percent in time spent per user on average. During the first half of 2024, YouTube Shorts presented a higher engagement rate than TikTok, or Instagram’s and Facebook’s Reels format.
Meta’s applications continued to make the ranking of the most downloaded apps worldwide, especially for instant messaging and communication. In March 2024, Facebook Messenger was the most-used messaging app among U.S. users across all demographics, despite being the sixth most downloaded social app on the Apple App Store during the first half of 2024.
Despite users’ fascination with AI chatbots, photo and editor apps remained one of the most popular app categories carrying AI functionalities. In November 2024, photo and video editor Canva saw over 1.16 million downloads in the U.S., while the Remini app, published by the Italian Bending Spoons, saw 763,000 downloads in the same month.
Slowing app growth and normalizing spending trends have characterized the immediate post-pandemic years. The digital market volatility affecting social media companies did not make a dent in users’ fascination with the social video format, but TikTok’s proposed ban in the U.S. might be shifting the balance in the social media market. The introduction of generative AI models to editing apps and to chat apps drove adoption and downloads for the year, with users embracing the novelty of apps such as ChatGPT and Gemini, or Canva and Remini.
Consumer spending on mobile apps increased to 36.2 billion U.S. dollars during the second quarter of 2024, 12 percent compared to the corresponding quarter in 2023. Entertainment apps were the highest-grossing mobile app categories during the first quarter of 2024, with almost nine billion U.S. dollars in revenues, while health and fitness apps generated around 1.2 billion U.S. dollars during the period.
Social video engagement moves to reach saturation
As of the beginning of 2024, watching videos was the most popular activity on smartphones, with six in 10 mobile users in the Asia-Pacific region reporting to watch videos online on their phones.Despite legal woes that might bring a TikTok ban in the U.S., the Chinese-developed social video platform continues to command a high level of attention. In 2024, U.S. users spent approximately 406 minutes on average on TikTok, a small decrease compared to 2023, while text-based social forum Reddit saw an increase of 13 percent in time spent per user on average. During the first half of 2024, YouTube Shorts presented a higher engagement rate than TikTok, or Instagram’s and Facebook’s Reels format.
Meta’s applications continued to make the ranking of the most downloaded apps worldwide, especially for instant messaging and communication. In March 2024, Facebook Messenger was the most-used messaging app among U.S. users across all demographics, despite being the sixth most downloaded social app on the Apple App Store during the first half of 2024.
AI and mobile apps
Artificial intelligence was made available to users on both desktop and mobile with the public release of OpenAI’s first generative AI chatbot, made commercially available in November 2022. In the first 10 days from its launch, ChatGPT generated almost 7.4 million app downloads. Microsoft Copilot, launched in January 2024, saw around two million downloads in the first 10 days from its launch, while Chinese-developed DeepSeek generated almost one million downloads between January 14 and 24, 2024.Despite users’ fascination with AI chatbots, photo and editor apps remained one of the most popular app categories carrying AI functionalities. In November 2024, photo and video editor Canva saw over 1.16 million downloads in the U.S., while the Remini app, published by the Italian Bending Spoons, saw 763,000 downloads in the same month.
Slowing app growth and normalizing spending trends have characterized the immediate post-pandemic years. The digital market volatility affecting social media companies did not make a dent in users’ fascination with the social video format, but TikTok’s proposed ban in the U.S. might be shifting the balance in the social media market. The introduction of generative AI models to editing apps and to chat apps drove adoption and downloads for the year, with users embracing the novelty of apps such as ChatGPT and Gemini, or Canva and Remini.
