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Apps have become an integral part of our everyday lives. They are used for all manner of things, including photo editing, socializing, music streaming, and personal finance management.
There are millions of apps currently on the market, but some prove to be more popular than others. Developers employ a range of means to push their apps up the download charts. Some implement extensive marketing campaigns, while others buy app installs. What were the most downloaded apps in 2022? Let’s find out.
TikTok
TikTok, the video-sharing sensation, took the app world by storm this year. Once seen as somewhat gimmicky, the platform saw an explosion in popularity and has now cemented its place among the social media titans. In Q3 2022, TikTok reported an astonishing 196.5 million installs.
For several years, Instagram has ruled the digital media landscape as the undisputed image-sharing king. Its popularity certainly hasn’t waned over time. It still records some of the highest numbers of downloads in the app industry. Since 2010, Instagram has been downloaded 3.8 billion times and the app sees 500 million daily users. Despite this, many people have questioned Instagram’s future with the arrival of rivals like TikTok. However, Instagram surprised these critics and became the most downloaded app in Q3 2022, driven primarily by a surge in users based in India and Brazil.
WhatsApp is an encrypted chat app that allows for free communication between users. It is currently the most popular chat app worldwide, used in over 180 countries by a user base of over 2 billion. In 2022, WhatsApp was one of the most downloaded non-game apps, recording 11 million downloads in August for iOS devices alone.
Snapchat
Snapchat is a multimedia-sharing app that is enormously popular among younger demographics. The app has gone through numerous redesigns and sees regular updates and changes which have worked to keep it at the forefront of the social media world and hold a secure place in the download charts. As of September 2022, Snapchat had been downloaded 15.3 million times on the Google Play Store, making it the fifth most popular app on that platform.
Facebook was the first true social media giant, and the platform paved the way for followers and worked to herald a new dawn of digital technology. In recent times, it would appear that Facebook has somewhat fallen by the wayside, overtaken by newer, cooler apps such as TikTok. However, Facebook is still an extremely popular platform, as evidenced by its sustained strong performance throughout 2022. It ended the year among the top five most downloaded apps, proving that Facebook is still a serious player in the social media landscape.
Conclusion
The world of apps is constantly changing. As technology develops and new apps are released, we see user habits and preferences shift considerably. New apps like TikTok have exploded in popularity, but, as the stats demonstrate, the established platforms don’t look like they are set to go away any time soon.