In May, only two apps maintained their April positions, and Instagram, the world’s most downloaded app in May, was one of them. AppFigures estimates that it has appeared on 66 million devices on the App Store and Google Play. This is more than 10 million devices more than in April!
Top Downloaded Apps in May
TikTok regained its No. 2 spot with 51 million downloads, a slight increase from April but enough to reclaim its position. TikTok was ousted by Facebook in March after holding the space for several months.
Facebook, WhatsApp, and Capcut completed the top five in May. Capcut is slowly climbing up the charts—a slow but powerful climb that shows no sign of slowing down. It is unclear how high a video editor can go, but apparently, this is its limit.
Temu is another app that started growing again in May after US ad spending slowed in April. According to analysts, the number of downloads in May increased by 28% compared to the previous month and amounted to 28 million, with the vast majority from Google Play.
Collectively, the 10 most downloaded apps in the world received 358 million downloads from the App Store and Google Play in May, marking a healthy 10% growth. We’ll keep you updated on how things go in June when downloads shift towards games.
Highest-Grossing Apps in May
TikTok became the world’s highest-grossing mobile app in May. Its estimated net income was $203 million, which is what ByteDance keeps after Apple and Google take their commissions. That’s $11 million more than in April, more than most apps make in an entire year!
Rival YouTube came in second in May with $131 million in net profit. This is also more than in April, but not by as much. Disney+, Tinder, and Max round out the top five highest-grossing apps in May. Each of them earned more in May than in April, and, comparatively speaking, occupied the same place month after month.
Overall, this is exactly what we see in all three lists—most applications retained their positions just like in April, notes NIX Solutions. Some attribute the lack of movement to issues with marketing and new product discovery, but it more likely suggests that these apps are putting more effort into optimizing revenue rather than investing everything in features or marketing.
The 10 highest-grossing apps in May generated $791 million in net revenue from the App Store and Google Play, according to App Intelligence. This is approximately 4% more than the April figure.