Indians Downloaded 26 Bn+ Mobile Apps In 2023

Indians downloaded 25.96 Bn apps on mobile devices that run on the key operating systems, Android and iOS, in 2023, a slight decrease from the 28 Bn downloads in the previous year, according to a recent report by app intelligence firm data.ai (formerly known as App Annie).

There was approximately a 7.29% drop in app downloads from 2022 to 2023.

The combined revenues from various app stores in India amounted to $415 Mn. Despite a notable increase, the country ranks 25th globally in terms of these earnings. Specifically, Google Play Store led with revenues of $19 Mn, followed by Sea with $16 Mn, Bumble with $11 Mn and Tencent with $10 Mn, BS reported, citing data.ai.

Among app categories, gaming dominated downloads with 9.3 Bn, trailed by social (2.36 Bn) and photo/video apps (1.86 Bn). Other popular categories included finance (1.6 Bn), entertainment (1.3 Bn), shopping (1.10 Bn), business (446 Mn), education (439 Mn), productivity tools (995 Mn), and lifestyle apps (468 Mn).

Last year, Google retained its position as the most popular app in India, accumulating a total of 449 Mn downloads, with an additional 40 Mn between January 1 and December. 

Following closely were Instagram with 364 Mn downloads (30 Mn additions), Reliance Jio with 266 Mn downloads (18 Mn additions), Flipkart with 220 Mn downloads (28 Mn additions), WhatsApp with 210 Mn downloads (20 Mn additions), and Meta with 207 Mn downloads (21 Mn additions).

At the parent company level, Meta led significantly, reaching a total of 782 Mn downloads, with an addition of 70 Mn last year, while, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, secured the second position with a total of 527 Mn downloads.

In the ecommerce segment, Meesho led with 35.8 Mn active users, surpassing Flipkart’s Shopsy, which had 11 Mn-plus users. Amazon and Flipkart were closely matched with 76 Mn and 82.1 Mn active users, respectively. In the over-the-top entertainment space, Disney+ Hotstar boasted 67 Mn users, Netflix had over 16 Mn, followed by Amazon Prime with over 10 Mn, and Zee5 with 6.7 Mn.

As per an earlier report by data.ai, in 2023, Instagram’s Threads app gained significant traction in India, constituting one-third of the app’s total global downloads. India led with 33%, followed by Brazil (22%), the United States (16%), Mexico (8%), and Japan (5%). Notably, Threads surpassed 150 million users worldwide within just 10 days of its launch, securing one-fifth of Twitter’s global weekly active user base.