In March 2024, Meta-powered apps Facebook and Instagram were the most downloaded mobile apps worldwide, with 59 million and 58 million downloads, respectively. Social video app TikTok followed with 46 million downloads. Meta-owned microblogging platform Threads generated 24 million downloads during the last month of the year.

Between 2021 and the end of 2023, China was the leading country for app downloads by far. In 2023, mobile apps in China saw approximately 113 billion downloads from users in the country. Mobile apps in India reached 26 billion downloads during the same year, while users in the United States generated approximately 12.6 billion downloads. In recent years, mobile apps downloads have been experiencing a positive growth trend in the majority of the examined countries.

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 February 2025, the YouTube mobile app ranked first with a 76 percent audience reach, while e-mail platform service Gmail was accessed by 68 percent of mobile audiences in the United States. Social media platform Facebook ranked third with a usage reach of 67 percent. Social video app TikTok reported a reach of approximately 40 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 February 2025, the YouTube's mobile app was the most popular smartphone app in the United States, with approximately 167 million unique monthly users in the country on iOS and Android combined. Gmail followed with approximately 148 million monthly active users, while Facebook was reported having 146.6 million active users in the examined month. In the United States, the mobile internet user penetration is set to reach 92.5 percent of the population in 2029. 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 Black Blast! was the most popular game for iPhone users, with more than 1.66 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. In June 2021, the popular short-video app TikTok was counting more than 6.5 million downloads from iOS users in the United States during the last quarter of 2023.

As of February 2025, two billion users were accessing the WhatsApp messenger on a monthly basis. The app’s reach in usage penetration is particularly strong in markets outside the United States, and it is one of the most popular mobile social apps worldwide. WeChat amassed over 1.38 billion users, and Facebook Messenger amassed around 947 million users worldwide. Instant messaging is a type of online chat which offers real-time text transmission via internet. Since the appearance of the smartphone and the subsequent explosion of mobile apps, low-cost or free chat and social messaging apps have proven themselves as a cheap alternative to operator-based text messaging via SMS. Many messenger apps offer features such as group chats, the exchange of graphics, video and even audio messages as well as stickers or emoticons.

"Social media apps" and "Internet browser" are the top two answers among Indian consumers in our survey on the subject of "Most used smartphone apps by type".Find this and more survey data on most used smartphone apps by type in our Consumer Insights tool. Filter by countless demographics, drill down to your own, hand-tailored target audience, and compare results across countries worldwide.

"Internet browser" and "Messenger apps" are the top two answers among French consumers in our survey on the subject of "Most used smartphone apps by type".Find this and more survey data on most used smartphone apps by type in our Consumer Insights tool. Filter by countless demographics, drill down to your own, hand-tailored target audience, and compare results across countries worldwide.

Market leader Facebook was the first social network to surpass one billion registered accounts and currently sits at more than three billion monthly active users. Meta Platforms owns four of the biggest social media platforms, all with more than one billion monthly active users each: Facebook (core platform), WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram. In the third quarter of 2023, Facebook reported around four billion monthly core Family product users. The United States and China account for the most high-profile social platforms Most top ranked social networks with more than 100 million users originated in the United States, but services like Chinese social networks WeChat, QQ or video sharing app Douyin have also garnered mainstream appeal in their respective regions due to local context and content. Douyin’s popularity has led to the platform releasing an international version of its network: a little app called TikTok. How many people use social media? The leading social networks are usually available in multiple languages and enable users to connect with friends or people across geographical, political, or economic borders. In 2025, social networking sites are estimated to reach 5.42 billion users and these figures are still expected to grow as mobile device usage and mobile social networks increasingly gain traction in previously underserved markets.

A March 2025 survey found that approximately 34 percent of responding Brazilian mobile phone users stated that Instagram was the app they used the longest daily. WhatsApp and YouTube followed, with around 27 and 8 percent of respondents saying it was their most used app. Despite its popularity in the country and throughout Latin America, only 6 percent of the Brazilian respondents claimed that TikTok was the app they used the longest time per day.

"Internet browser" and "E-mail services" are the top two answers among UK consumers in our survey on the subject of "Most used smartphone apps by type".Find this and more survey data on most used smartphone apps by type in our Consumer Insights tool. Filter by countless demographics, drill down to your own, hand-tailored target audience, and compare results across countries worldwide.

"Internet browser" and "E-mail services" are the top two answers among Spanish consumers in our survey on the subject of "Most used smartphone apps by type".Find this and more survey data on most used smartphone apps by type in our Consumer Insights tool. Filter by countless demographics, drill down to your own, hand-tailored target audience, and compare results across countries worldwide.

In September 2022, mobile gaming app Stumble Guys was downloaded approximately 200 thousand times by Android users in Belgium, making it the most popular app in the Google Play store in the country. Communication app GovApp, provided by the Belgium authorities ranked second, with close to 187 thousand downloads during the examined month. Casual games, social media, and online shopping apps complete the ranking of the most downloaded Android apps in Belgium.

"Internet browser" and "Social media apps" are the top two answers among Mexican consumers in our survey on the subject of "Most used smartphone apps by type".Find this and more survey data on most used smartphone apps by type in our Consumer Insights tool. Filter by countless demographics, drill down to your own, hand-tailored target audience, and compare results across countries worldwide.

In the third quarter of 2024, Facebook was the most used social media platform in the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand, having the most share of surveyed internet users in these countries using the platform. WhatsApp leads in Indonesia and Malaysia, with about ** percent of surveyed internet users in these countries stating that they used WhatsApp each month during this period.

According to a survey from Rakuten Insight conducted in Asia in April 2023, Meituan Waimai was the most used food delivery app in China, with ** percent of the respondents selecting the app. GrabFood and Food Panda were the most used food delivery apps in Southeast Asia as of April 2023.

"E-mail services" and "Social media apps" are the top two answers among Swedish consumers in our survey on the subject of "Most used smartphone apps by type".Find this and more survey data on most used smartphone apps by type in our Consumer Insights tool. Filter by countless demographics, drill down to your own, hand-tailored target audience, and compare results across countries worldwide.

The Google Maps mobile app reported the highest number of downloads worldwide among the selected travel apps in 2024. That year, this app recorded nearly *** million aggregated downloads on iOS and Google Play. The Uber app was the second most downloaded app in the ranking, with almost *** million downloads. The online travel agency app market Focusing on the online travel agency (OTA) market, Airbnb topped the ranking of the OTA apps with the highest number of downloads worldwide in 2024, ahead of Booking.com. When looking at the number of downloads of leading OTA apps in the U.S. that year, Airbnb recorded again the highest figure, while Expedia ranked second in that case. How big is the travel app market? In 2023, the travel app market's global revenue reached nearly *** billion U.S. dollars and was forecast to increase steadily over the following years. When breaking down the global travel app market's revenue by country, the United States and China ranked by far as the biggest players that year, generating around *** million and *** million U.S. dollars, respectively.

Google was the most popular app in India, with *** million downloads overall as of 2023. It was followed by Instagram. Reliance Jio was the leading Indian-made app with over *** million downloads until 2023. Social media leads app usage in India Social media is the most used smartphone app category among Indians, with Facebook holding the largest market share among social media apps in the country. Facebook maintains a significant presence with over *** million users, while Instagram, known for its visual-centric content, has a strong following among younger demographics with over *** million users nationwide as of 2024. Furthermore, Facebook's dominance in India's social media landscape extends beyond user count, with the Indian arm of the company making a revenue of about ** billion rupees in fiscal year 2023. Media and entertainment apps In India, media and entertainment apps have become integral to the digital lifestyles of consumers, offering a diverse range of content and services tailored to their preferences. YouTube was the top streaming choice among Gen Z users, while apps like Spotify were favored for listening to podcasts. Additionally, news portals such as Dailyhunt, developed by Indian app publisher Eterno Infotech, led digital news consumption in India, with over *** million downloads.

In March 2024, ******** was the most popular mobile app for smartphone or tablet users in the United Kingdom, with an audience reach of ** percent. Social media giant ******** followed, with a reach of around ** percent of the country's digital population. ******* ranked third with an audience reach of ** percent. In 2023, e-mail services, mobile social media, and ********* apps were the most popular categories for smartphone users in the country.