21 Tempting App Usage Statistics to Focus on in 2020

1. UK users downloaded 15.5 billion apps in 2018.

(Statista)

According to app download statistics released by Statista, the number of individual app downloads in the UK in 2018 was set to total a stunning 15.5 billion. It’s projected that next year, the number will reach 20 billion for the first time, as growth shows no signs of slowing.

2. Facebook is the most popular app in the UK.

(London Loves Business)

With social networking accounting for a significant tranche of the most used apps nationwide, it’s probably no surprise that Facebook stands out as the most popular app for UK smartphone users. Benefiting from major takeup among all mobile app usage demographics, from school age to senior, it’s some way ahead of the field.

3. Bank application usage is on the rise.

(Business Insider)

While we’ve never had a problem trusting apps for our social needs or to give us the latest news, it’s fair to say mobile banking was a bigger step to make – but it’s one we’re evidently becoming more comfortable with. Business Insider reports that between 2012 and 2017, bank app usage increased by a staggering 356%. Today, some banks even operate on a purely app-based platform, which boosts the application usage metrics.

4. Free apps are worth more to vendors than paid ones.

(UKIE)

It sounds counter-intuitive, but it’s a fact:

76% of revenue made from apps comes from free apps. The reason is simple – in-app purchases that allow users to upscale. These play a significant role in Facebook app usage stats. Naturally, people are less likely to download an app if they have to pay for it. But once they have downloaded it, they can engage with it and will be more likely to agree to pay for some features.

5. “Tools” and “Communication” are the most-subscribed app categories.

(Statista)

Although many of the most interesting stats are about which apps people use most, a recent study of Android app usage stats revealed that 100% of Android users are “reached” by apps that fall into the category of “Tools” or “Communication”. Of course, this simply means that 100% of users have – for example – a “Calculator” app, or “Messages” on their phones. More intriguing is the fact that a whopping 92.78% of users had apps relating to “Productivity”.

6. App Store users are a social bunch.

(Apple)

Apple recently made the public aware of the apps that Apple think are pretty great, in the hope that more users will download them. However, the majority of users still make use of the App Store for the usual social sites, with YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram, and Messenger among the top five free apps downloaded from the store. Among the most popular paid apps were pic-editing services like TouchRetouch and FaceTune.

7. People uninstall for a range of reasons, mainly web application memory usage.

(Capita)

An app is easy to download and just as easy to delete, and the memory tied up in web application usage statistics is at the source of most app deletions. In 50.6% of cases where apps are deleted, it’s because they simply take up too much space on a phone. Intrusive advertising (41.3%) and repeated freezing, with 33.8%, were the next most common reasons for deleting an app.

8. UK users broke the £1billion mark for app gaming in 2019.

(Statista)

When it comes to mobile gaming statistics, the UK will have spent over £1billion (a total of $1.345 billion) on app gaming by the time 2019 is out. The year has seen an annual growth rate of 4.3% over 2018, and while the country with the highest spend is still China, with mobile games generating a total of more than $21 billion in revenue, the UK is certainly contributing a healthy amount to the global for gaming app revenue statistics.

9. Approximately half of app users will play games in a given week.

(Business of Apps)

Further to the previous smartphone usage statistics, it’s not just the UK user that enjoys playing games on their mobile. When surveyed across the UK, US, France, and Germany, 50% of app users said they had used their mobile to play a game in the past week.

10. Android has more apps to offer than Apple.

(Business of Apps)

Based on application usage analytics carried out this year, there are approximately 2.2 million apps available for download from Apple’s app store. That compares with a total of 2.6 million on offer to Android customers, which in itself marks a considerable fall from the peak in 2017 when it had 3.6million.

11. The title for the most downloaded app of 2018 is disputed.

(Business of Apps)

According to Sensor Tower, the most downloaded app of 2018 globally was WhatsApp, with approximately 900 million individual downloads. AppAnnie’s app download statistics disagreed, with Facebook Messenger topping their charts. Then again, as Facebook owns WhatsApp, that means the same company is responsible for two of the most downloaded apps of all time.

12. 49% of users open apps more than 11 times a day.

(Buildfire)

As a sign of just how app-based most of our lives are, stats show that almost half of survey respondents open an app on at least eleven separate occasions every day. It may be to read the news, check email, or fit in a few rounds of a preferred gaming app. One way or another, it shows that Pew Research have a point about mobile application usage statistics as compared to web browsers.

13. As many as 75% of apps are opened once, then abandoned.

(Forbes)

If you’re looking to use your app to get noticed, it’s a decent strategy. But bear this in mind: 

Only about 25% of apps are even opened more than once. Once a week has passed since the download, the statistics on mobile app usage show that the number still being used slumps to 11%. First impressions count because they are so frequently the only ones you’ll ever get to make.

14. The average smartphone user will use around 30 apps per month.

(AppAnnie)

The apps that do get reused really get reused. An AppAnnie report from 2017 shows that users will get through between nine and ten apps a day. And by the end of a month, they will likely have made use of thirty. Across iPhone and Android, most of these apps are tools like the inbuilt web browser or social networks, with work-based apps such as iCloud also featuring prominently.

15. With more than 50,000 downloads, Probability Distributions is among the best App Store statistics option for applying stats.

(Analytics Vidhya)

What is the best app for statistics? It depends…

App users who are interested in data and its applications will find plenty of apps available out there. Probability Distributions is certainly up there. Those who are seeking to learn more will find Khan Academy, an iPad application usage statistics students have recommended, to be well worth its 100,000-download reputation.

16. 2019 could be the first with more than 200 billion app downloads worldwide.

(Business of Apps)

Although the stats will show that there are fewer apps around – thanks to Android trimming the Play Store by a million – there is no slowing of the rate at which we download them. In 2017, there were just over 178 billion apps downloaded worldwide. By the end of 2018, that total had been not just beaten but obliterated, with an incredible 195.1 billion downloads. Conservatively, we should see the 250 billion mark beaten by the end of 2022. 

How many apps are downloaded a day? According to the numbers from 2018, it’s around 534 million.

17. How many apps does the average person have in 2019?

(AppAnnie)

This is a hard figure to find. Estimates vary between 60 and 90, depending on where you look – and the average is somewhere in between those two numbers. AppAnnie’s 2017 study indicates that it varies by country. In the UK, the most recent numbers put it just short of 90, compared to over 100 in China and Japan.

18. UK app users spend just over two hours a day in apps.

(AppAnnie)

An average UK user with an Android phone will spend just north of 120 minutes using apps on a given day. They may be replying to emails, tweeting, streaming YouTube videos, or any number of other processes, but that total adds up to about 748 hours a year in apps. To put it another way, that’s the equivalent of one month out of each year. If you think that sounds like a lot, app usage statistics show that world leaders South Korea manage a staggering 195 minutes per day in apps, or the equivalent of 50 days out of each year.

19. Through the end of Q2 2019, the most downloaded app worldwide was WhatsApp, with 191 million first-time downloads.

(SensorTower)

What is the most used app in the world in 2019?

As the year draws to a close, the full figures are still unavailable, but WhatsApp is the leader of the pack for now. It’s narrowly ahead of Facebook Messenger with 181 million, with Facebook moving ahead of TikTok to regain third place. Android and iPhone app usage statistics were harder to find, but messaging apps are among the most frequently used, so we can assume that most people downloading WhatsApp got some use out of it.

You might be wondering:

How do you check app usage?

Here’s the deal:

You can run your own statistical search and see how your own Android app usage statistics compare with other people’s. In an Android phone, this check is as simple as going to the phone Settings and scrolling to “Data Usage”, which will give you a numeric and graphical breakdown of how much you use each app. 

For app usage statistics, iPhone users have a different path. After Settings, you go to “Battery” and then to “Battery Usage by App”. By clicking on each app in turn, you can find out a breakdown of network usage by application.

20. Almost a quarter of App Store downloads are games.

(Buildfire)

When a user makes a download from the App Store, there is a one in four chance that it will be a game making its way to their phone. 24.86% of new downloads are games, ahead of 9.77% that are business-related and 8.5% educational. Social networking apps count for just 2.11% of new downloads, which seems low until you consider that, for the most part, they come pre-loaded on new phone purchases. Health app usage statistics top out at 1.83% of downloads.

21. 80%+ of our mobile use is in apps.

(Business of Apps)

Perhaps the most definitive underlining of the fact that we’re in the age of the app is the following point drawn from mobile app usage statistics UK researchers have generated: 

When we use our phones for digital surfing, a dizzying 83% of UK use is in-app rather than browser-based. That’s a little less than in the US, where the total is 88%. In Argentina, meanwhile, a world-beating 95% of mobile time is app-focused. The trend in smartphone application usage statistics worldwide, though, is unmistakable – apps are taking over.