In 2022, TikTok was the most popular mobile app in the United States, with 99 million downloads. Instagram ranked second generating 72 million downloads across iOS and Google Play combined, while Cash App ranked third with 64 million downloads. Meta-owned platform WhatsApp ranked fourth, with 63 million downloads during the year, while Facebook Messenger and Facebook ranked last, with 45.5 million downloads and 46.3 downloads, respectively.

In March 2023, the online marketplace app Temu was the most downloaded Chinese app in the United States, with 10 million downloads across iOS App Store and Google Play Store. The social video platform TikTok came in second with 7.4 million downloads, followed closely by CapCut with 6.7 million. SHEIN, a popular fashion and e-commerce app, has also seen significant success in the US, with 6.3 million downloads only in the last examined period.

In 2024, TikTok was still the most downloaded mobile app worldwide. The short-video sharing app generated 825.5 million downloads during the same year. The social video app Instagram followed with 817 million downloads. Fast-fashion app Temu ranked in fifth, with over 516 million downloads for global users in the last examined year, while ByteDance-published video editing app CapCut had around 410 million downloads. TikTok Owned by the Beijing-based tech company ByteDance and launched in 2017, TikTok quickly gained popularity after the acquisition of Musical.ly in 2018. In 2025, the number of TikTok users worldwide was expected to exceed 955 million, with the United States being one of the leading markets. In 2024, TikTok engaged the largest audience from Indonesia, with over 157 million consumers from the region using the app. United States, and Brazil followed with 120.5 and 105.2 users, respectively. Meta Platforms In October 2021, Facebook was renamed and rebranded as Meta, with the CEO Mark Zuckerberg aiming to be associated with the metaverse. Meta’s products include Facebook, Messager, Instagram, and WhatsApp, also known as Meta’s Family of Apps (FoA), generating most of Meta’s revenue. Moreover, these are among the most popular social networks worldwide. As part of its rebranding, Meta’s Reality Labs business segment develops a series of virtual reality (VR) headsets, the Meta Quest - one of the leading VR devices on the market.

In June 2023, social video app TikTok was the most-downloaded app in the Google Play Store in the United States. The app generated over 3.13 million downloads from Android users. Shopping app Temu was the second-most popular title for U.S. Android users with approximately 2.2 million downloads from U.S. users.

In December 2024, the YouTube mobile app ranked first with a 76 percent audience reach, while social media platform Facebook ranked third with a usage reach of 68 percent. E-mail platform service Gmail was accessed by 69 percent of mobile audiences in the United States. Social video app TikTok reported a reach of approximately 42 percent in the examine period. TikTok in the U.S. The social media ecosystem continues to evolve rapidly. While Facebook remains a dominant force with over three billion monthly active users across its family of apps, newcomers like TikTok are reshaping user engagement. TikTok's global popularity is evident in its 186 million worldwide downloads in Q4 2024. TikTok's popularity extends beyond entertainment, with 64 percent of Gen Z users in the U.S. utilizing it as an online search engine in 2024. This trend underscores the platform's expanding role in information discovery, particularly among younger demographics. However, TikTok's success is not without controversy. Nearly 40 percent of U.S. users believed the Chinese government is using it to bring social and political divisions. OTT video apps in the U.S. While television remains the primary device for media consumption across all age groups, a clear generational divide is emerging. Younger audiences, particularly those aged 18 to 34, are turning to smartphones as their preferred entertainment device. This shift aligns with broader trends in digital media consumption. During the first half of 2024, entertainment apps were leading in mobile revenue generation, with U.S. consumers spending over 2.65 billion U.S. dollars on these apps.

In 2024, the Temu shopping app was the most downloaded e-commerce app in the United States on both iOS and Android devices, accumulating a grand total of over 86 million downloads that year. Fast fashion retailer SHEIN's app was the second most popular on mobile devices, with about 23 million downloads on the Apple App Store and over 13 million on the Google Play Store. M-commerce takes over Over the past few years, mobile e-commerce has become increasingly popular, as it allows users to access a variety of services at the touch of a screen. This increase in popularity can be seen through mobile retail e-commerce sales, which are forecast to almost double from 2024 to 2027 in the United States. With mobile phones being used the most when it comes to retail website traffic, it should come as no surprise that smartphones were also ultimately the most common device for purchasing online in the United States in 2023. Marketplace galore Among the top five most downloaded apps in the U.S., four were marketplaces. While Temu and Shein dominated in app downloads, American-owned Amazon and Walmart were among the most visited e-commerce marketplaces in their headquartered countries. Additionally, when compared directly to Temu, Shein, and AliExpress, Amazon outperformed them when it came to registered users as of March 2023.

Tool apps were the most downloaded app category among mobile users in the United States. During the first half of 2024, tool apps generated almost 963 million downloads among U.S. users. Communication apps generated approximately 720 million downloads, while entertainment apps saw over 704 million app downloads across the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store during the first six months of 2024.

In 2024, puzzle game Block Blast! was the leading gaming app in the United States, generating 37.24 million downloads. The creative gaming platform Roblox saw 27.24 million downloads in the United States, whereas Monopoly Go ranked third with 21.28 million downloads from users in the country during the measured period.

In 2022, TikTok was the leading entertainment and streaming app in the United States, with 99 million downloads in the country from iOS and Google Play combined. Disney+ generated 41 million downloads, ranking as the second most downloaded entertainment app in the U.S. The mobile app for streaming service HBO Max ranked sixth, amassing 34 million downloads from U.S. users in 2022. Disney+, which was launched in November 2019, saw approximately 8.4 million downloads in the U.S. during the third quarter of 2022 alone.

In 2022, Zoom was the leading business app in the United States, generating 37 million downloads in the country. The communication platform Microsoft Teams ranked second with 25 million downloads in 2022. The mobile app for job searching platform Indeed amassed over 19 million downloads from users in the U.S. during the measured period.

In November 2023, the YouTube's mobile app was the most popular smartphone app in the United States, with approximately 161 million unique monthly users in the country on iOS and Android combined. Facebook followed with approximately 140 million monthly active users, while Gmail was reported having 136 million active users in the examined month.

In the United States, the mobile internet user penetration is set to reach 87.6 percent of the population in 2026. Some of the most popular app categories on the Apple App Store are dedicated to gaming, business, or education. In July 2021, casual mobile gaming app Fidget Trading 3D was the most popular game for iPhone users, with more than 4.16 million downloads.

Mobile social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, are still among the most popular social apps for mobile users in the country. However, video apps YouTube and TikTok have quickly become users' favorite social media. As of March 2021, social video apps reported the highest user engagement rates among iOS users in the United States, with users spending 8.7 hours weekly on TikTok and more than five hours weekly on YouTube. In June 2021, the popular short-video app TikTok was counting more than 6.1 million downloads from iOS users in the United States.

The Google Maps mobile app reported the highest number of downloads in the United States among the selected travel apps in 2023. That year, this app recorded nearly 20 million aggregated downloads on iOS and Google Play. The Uber app was the second most downloaded app in the ranking, with around 18.8 million downloads.

The Airbnb mobile app recorded the highest number of downloads in the United States among the selected online travel agency and travel metasearch service apps in 2024. That year, the Airbnb app reported over 14 million aggregated downloads on iOS and Google Play in the United States. The Expedia app was the second most downloaded app in the ranking, with roughly 11.4 million downloads.

In 2022, Planet Fitness was the most popular health and fitness app in the United States, generating over 18 million downloads. Sport and activity tracking Sweatcoin ranked second, amassing approximately nine million downloads. The mental wellness and meditation app Calm saw 8.8 million downloads in the country in the examined period, ranking third as the most downloaded health app. Despite the controversies surrounding period tracking mobile apps data sharing and privacy settings in the aftermath of the Supreme Court overturning of Roe v. Wade, Flo was downloaded 7.2 million times by U.S. users in the examined year.

In 2021, Instagram was the social media app that generated the most downloads in the United States. The photo and video-sharing app had 72 million downloads in the country. WhatsApp was the second most downloaded app, with 63 million downloads. Facebook Messenger ranked third, generating approximately 46 million downloads from users in the country during the examined period.

Chinese online retailer Temu was the most downloaded shopping app worldwide in 2024. The application counted almost 550 million downloads from the Apple App and Google Play store. Temu's main rival, Shein, was the second-most downloaded shopping app that year, with roughly 235 million downloads. From China to the world Since its launch in September of 2022, Temu has achieved remarkable success, with its monthly gross merchandise volume (GMV) surging by over 600 million U.S. dollars in less than a year. Similarly, its competitor, Shein, continues to experience exponential annual revenue growth. With Temu ascending to global stardom and Shein consolidating its dominance, Chinese e-commerce giants are actively looking to conquer the world of online sales. Mobile taking the upper hand In 2024, mobile commerce accounted for more than half of all global online retail sales. Despite its significant traction, the zenith of mobile commerce remains on the horizon, with forecasts indicating a sustained growth in contribution to total e-commerce sales in the coming years. Across various nations, over 30 percent of internet users already participate in weekly mobile commerce transactions, surpassing the global average.

While the number of downloads kept increasing between 2016 to 2022. However, in 2023, the global app downloads stagnated, reaching 257 billion downloads and experienced only a one percent year-over-year increase.

The app market Mobile apps are projected to generate more than 613 billion U.S. dollars in revenues in 2025, with mobile games making up the biggest revenue share among all app categories. In 2020, gaming and video made up the largest shares of the mobile content market for the year. The ePublishing and education sectors still saw a limited market for their mobile content, despite the increase in apps usage brought by the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting regular school system settings.

App monetization: a changing landscape As an indispensable part of the smartphone experience, the largest number of apps in the major app stores are free to download. However, in recent years, the growth of global consumer spending on apps has shown users’ healthy appetite for premium services or paid app content. In the second quarter of 2021, Android consumers have spent an average of 5.31 U.S. dollars per handset, after peaking in the last quarter of 2020 reaching an average of 10.6 U.S. dollars per mobile device. As of September 2021, the number of paid apps has shrunk to make up only six percent and four percent of the total numbers in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store, respectively. In comparison, apps offering subscription plans are becoming increasingly popular in the monetization landscape. In 2020, the leading subscription apps in the Apple App Store generated more than 10 million U.S. dollars in global revenues.

This statistic ranks the leading apps that female online users in the United States least can do without as of the third quarter of 2020. During the survey period, 16 percent of responding women stated that Instagram was in their top three apps they could not do without.

In 2022, Duolingo was the most popular education app in the United States, with 16.5 million downloads. Toca Life World, which is an education app for children between 6 and 12 years old, ranked second with 11.7 million downloads from users in the U.S. in the last measured year. OCR-powered Photomath generated almost 11 million downloads from users in the country in 2022.

According to a survey conducted during the second quarter of 2022 among mobile gamers in the United States, approximately six in 10 respondents had downloaded a quick service restaurant app. Among these, 63 percent reported downloading the McDonald's mobile app, while 35 percent reported downloading the Burger King app. The Taco Bell and Wendy's mobile apps were downloaded by around 40 percent of respondents, respectively.