When it comes to popular mobile apps, Facebook and its apps are known to rule the charts. But things are about to change as TikTok has finally managed to emerge as the most-downloaded app in January 2020, leaving behind the Facebook-owned cross-platform messaging app WhatsApp. In November last year, TikTok hit the 1.5 billion app downloads mark combined on the App Store and Google Play Store – with a large chunk of downloads from India alone. As the battle for the next big short-form video app continues, it’s almost certain that TikTok is here to stay.
According to a report based on an estimate from app analytics company Sensor Tower, TikTok emerged as the most-downloaded non-game app in the United States for January 2020. The app was installed 7.7 million times, with a sharp 28.8 percent increase from last year’s numbers. The analytics are a part of Sensor Tower’s Store Intelligence platform estimates.
Disney+ remained the second most-downloaded non-game app in the US during January 2020. The app was downloaded 6.8 million times. Disney+ is also headed to India next month where it will be available in collaboration with the company’s local online streaming service Hotstar. Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and Netflix took the third, fourth, and fifth positions in the list.
According to an earlier report, India has been a quick adopter of TikTok with 277.6 million downloads in November 2019 itself. The app continues to trend amongst a large number of Indian smartphone users, thanks to affordable mobile internet and the availability of cheaper mobile devices.
Sensor Tower’s report includes estimates for app downloads from Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store until January 31, 2020. The analytics company excludes all pre-installed apps and doesn’t include any third-party app stores either.