41 Fascinating App Usage Statistics for 2024

There are lots of reasons to want to know app usage statistics. If you’re trying to reach a possible customer base or other marketing effort, it’s especially useful to know how apps factor into the daily lives of your target audience. Or, maybe you just want to know the newest statistical trends so you have an idea of where people are spending their time and money, such as average app user growth. Regardless, we have the 40 most relevant mobile app stats.

General App Statistics

Before we dive into everything, here are some general stats on things such as app usage such as, how many apps are downloaded a day, and so on. You get the idea. If you take nothing else from this article, just remember that apps are wildly popular and they aren’t going anywhere.

1. In the time frame of 2019-2020, 250 million apps were downloaded on a daily basis. The estimate is, by 2024, that number could skyrocket to 500 million. (Zippia) Really, these app download stats should be no surprise, considering how much app usage has increased over the last few years. The next statistic reflects exactly that.
2. Application downloads have increased by 63% since 2016. (Zippia)
3. Mobile apps are anticipated to bring in more than $935 billion in revenues this year. (Buildfire)
4. Of all time spent in the US on digital media, 70% is from mobile apps. (Buildfire)
5. There are 3.8 billion smartphone users, worldwide. (TechJury)
6. For smartphone users, 87% of them use their mobile time on applications. (TechJury)
7. Most smartphone owners use 10 apps daily and 30 apps monthly. (Buildfire)
8. In 2021, over 100 billion apps were downloaded for the first time. This number is expected to boom to 200 billion by 2025. (Business of Apps)
9. In the US, the average person checks their phone every 10-12 minutes, which averages to 96+ times a day. For 66% of Americans, that number goes up to 160 times a day. Yikes. Needless to say, with so much mobile usage, apps are fair game to attract users who utilize this mobile format so freely. (Zippia)

A Few Cell Phone Stats

Though apps can be used on numerous devices and systems, most apps are used via smartphones. Therefore, it only makes sense that we’d through a few mobile stats your way. After all, increased cell phone use means increased app use.

10. As of this year, U.S. smartphone ownership has reached 270 million people, roughly 81% of the population. (Market Splash)
11. Globally, as of this year, nearly 90% of the worldwide population is expected to have a smartphone. (Market Splash)
12. In terms of age groups, those who are 18-29 have the highest rates of being smartphone users with 94% of them owning mobile devices. (Market Splash)

Demographics of Typical App Users

Mobile app trends and app store stats are well and good, but what kinds of people are actually using applications the most? Here’s a little more information about the typical app user.

13. On a global scale, Chinese mobile users had the most app downloads of any other country, followed by India and then the U.S. (Business of Apps)
14. In terms of demographic ages, younger users tended to spend more hours, monthly, using apps. Young users, from the ages of 18-24, spend 112 hours on apps. Those ages 25-34 spend 102 hours, monthly. Those 35-44 spend 93 hours, whereas those 45-54 only spend 75 hours a month. Upper middle-aged users from 55-64 spend 69 hours monthly, and lastly, those 65 and older only spend 51 hours on monthly app use.
15. In the United States, female social media users made up 54% whereas males were only 46%. Globally, it was the other way around, with 45% for females and 54% for males. Considering social media is one of the topmost apps used on mobile devices, this is very much worth noting. (Backlinko)
16. The Global Web Index claims the average number of social media accounts, worldwide, is 8.4 for Millennials and Gen-Zs. This is up a massive 75% from 2014 when it was only 4.8 accounts. Furthermore, this study shows Japan with the lowest average of social network accounts, only at 3.8. India, surprisingly, had the highest at 11.5 per person! (Backlinko)

Mobile App Usage Analytics

By now you can see that a great deal of people use mobile applications, but what exactly are they doing with them? Here are some great stats to tell you which mobile apps are used the most.

17. According to a survey by Statista in 2023, the leading mobile activity was sending emails or chatting, making up 75% of the surveyed market, globally. Meanwhile, entertainment such as watching videos or listening to music was popular for 60% of respondents. (Statista)
18. Also per Statista, in 2022, TikTok was the most globally downloaded video app. It had over 875 million downloads from the Apple App Store and Google Play. Second to this was YouTube with 190.8 million global downloads, and then Netflix with 180 million downloads. (Statista) Clearly, video-based content is in high demand, reflected in such mobile app download statistics as these. Still, there are other highly used categories that are worth noting.
19. In the first half of this year, Statista saw global education app users increase downloads by 1.2%. At the same time, entertainment applications rose by 1.05%. The highest of all increases, however, were fitness and health apps, increasing globally by downloads rising 1.26%. (Statista)
20. Social media is a huge factor in app use. Currently, 4.48 billion people worldwide use social media, which is more than twice what it was in 2015. (Backlinko)
21. The average amount of time spent daily on social media is 2 hours and 24 minutes, globally. That’s actually quite a bit! (Backlinko)
22. According to TechReport, the most essential apps for users in the U.S. are:

• Facebook (17%)
• Instagram (13%)
• Gmail app (9%)
• YouTube (8%)
• Twitter (now known as X) (7%)
• Chrome (6%)
• Maps (6%)
• WhatsApp (5%)
• Amazon (5%)
• Messenger (5%)  (TechReport)

23. Another important genre of smartphone apps would be retail-based shopping apps. These types create 47% of retail consumption as many people use their phones to shop online. (TechReport)

Besides this list, there are plenty of entertainment apps that people use every day. If that sounds like you, here are the best TV streaming apps of 2023.

Android and iPhone apps

When it comes to iPhone or Android app usage, the biggest sources of statistics come from The App Store or Google Play. Here are a few figures to keep in mind when considering these app providers:

24. Want to know how many apps are available for download? When it comes to The Apple App Store, that number is a huge 1.96 million. (Buildfire)
25. That said, Google Play has even more! It has 2.266 million apps and 390,000 games. (Business of Apps)
26. TikTok is the most downloaded app from the Google Play Store, with roughly 24 million downloads. This is followed by Instagram at 21.17 million, and then Whatsapp with 20.72 million. (Demand Sage)
27. As of this year, nearly 97% of Android apps are free and only 3% are paid. (Demand Sage)
28. Not surprisingly, Android has a 71.8% global share of the mobile OS market. (Demand Sage
29. Google Play also has the biggest number of worldwide app downloads. 27 billion apps were downloaded in the first quarter of this year alone, according to Statista. Surprisingly, in spite of these huge figures, Apple’s App Store still makes more revenue off of their apps, raking in 83 billion last year, which is over twice the amount Android users spent. (Statista)

30. No doubt the biggest reason for this is the fact that 98% of Google Play’s revenue is from apps that are free to download. Advertisements are where the revenue comes from. The marketing efforts of these companies make up for the lack of user spending. (Zippia)

Speaking of marketing….

Apps and Marketing Efforts

For those involved in marketing, applications are a huge opportunity to find potential consumers, create customer relationships, and help convert interested parties into full-fledged customers. Here’s a little more on how apps can help with these kinds of efforts.

31. Mobile apps have higher rates of engagement than desktop browsing or even mobile-optimized websites. The conversion rates are up to three times higher. This is particularly important, as any companies that are working towards mobile marketing will need to understand that apps greatly outperform even mobile-optimized sites. (Idea Usher)
32. Only 54% of marketers utilize apps to access their customers. Considering half of users find new products and companies through apps, this is a massive wasted opportunity. (Idea Usher)
33. It’s estimated that, in the US, by 2024 the number of mobile shoppers will be over 187 million. (Market Splash)

When Apps Go Wrong

There are lots of reasons why users stop using apps, sometimes known as “churn.” Here are some valuable stats as to all the factors that make applications lose their appeal.

34. According to Tech Report, 71% of application users will lose interest within 90 days of downloading an app. (Tech Report) It’s important for them to have a reason to keep coming back.
35. One reason why apps lose their audience is when they’re too big. 50% of users uninstall apps that hog too much of their phone memory. (Idea Usher)
36. If load times are too long, 70% of mobile app users will abandon the app. (Tech Jury)

Besides glitches and bugs, a huge issue for apps is the lack of security, which is a much more common problem than most of us would like to believe…

37. 47% of apps were released before they were fully ready. They are fraught with issues such as bugs and security vulnerabilities. In fact, 75% of mobile apps fail simple security tests! (Idea Usher)
38. Social media applications are 3x more likely to expose a user’s password than a typical app would be. (Now Secure)
39. For mobile apps, one in four have at least one high-risk security flaw. (Now Secure)
40. In a study by Now Secure, 50.5% of Android devices from their sample were one or more major versions out of date. This means that vulnerabilities that could have been patched by updates, are still very much a danger, leaving the user’s device vulnerable. (Now Secure)

Conclusion

Whether you use your apps for education, social media, watching videos on YouTube, or even just navigation in your car, it seems like there is an app for everything. Considering how utterly massive the market is and is projected to reach, apps aren’t going anywhere for a long time. That said, clearly there are still some bugs and vulnerabilities to work out. If privacy is important to you, it might be a good idea to educate yourself on these location-tracking apps.