Carrying the momentum from 2020 was always going to be difficult for apps like Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams, which noticed rapid growth in 2020 as millions of businesses, schools and people adapted their workspace to a virtual environment.
However, while countries re-opened their offices, pubs and borders, the effects of the pandemic and the return of Covid through delta and omicron has led to continued use of these applications and the changes to how we work are likely to be the new normal.
Outside of the workplace, TikTok remained the most popular app worldwide for the second year in a row. It managed to divert a potential sale to Oracle and Walmart, with the Biden Administration reverting a previous order to sell the app authorized by President Trump.
Its ban in India has led to a new segment of TikTok-like apps, vying to take the short-video crown in the country. Several of these apps have added over 50 million users this year alone, with TikTok reportedly missing out on a potential 250 million active users because of the ban.
Facebook still dominated total download charts, with four of the top 10 most downloaded apps published by the social network.
In a year when several app sectors saw five years growth in a few months, it is impressive that most managed to keep pace with 2020 downloads. Total downloads were down, with top apps like TikTok, Facebook and Snapchat losing over 100 million downloads in 2021.
Some newer categories, like cryptocurrency, saw much higher downloads and usage in 2021 than in the previous year. Others, such as travel, transport and dating, benefited from the opening up of tourism and hospitality.
We have collected data and statistics on the most popular apps by country and by category. Read on below to find out more.
Most Popular Apps Key Statistics
- TikTok was the most downloaded app globally in 2021, with 656 million downloads
- Among Us was the most downloaded globally in 2020, with 285 million downloads
- Four of the ten most downloaded apps of 2021 were published by Facebook
Most Popular Apps by Country
In this section, we take a look at the most popular apps in each country. We cover global, Brazil, China, India, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Most Popular Apps 2021 (Global)
TikTok retained its spot as the most downloaded app in 2021, although total downloads decreased by 194 million in 2021. Facebook had three apps in the top five.