The Most Popular Apps of 2021

In 2021, TikTok has been downloaded 656 million times, becoming the world’s most popular app. It is closely followed by old-school giants like Instagram and Meta (Facebook). Telegram and WhatsApp are also not too far behind.

If, however, we look at particular categories, then Netflix is the most popular entertainment app, while Shopee became the top shopping app, pushing Amazon out of the top 3 most popular shopping apps. Naturally, Google Maps is the most popular travel app and Spotify is the go-to app if everyone who enjoys listening to music. This rating takes into account downloads made by Android as well as Apple users.

According to Apptopia’s report, the top downloaded apps are TikTok (656M), Instagram (545M), Facebook (416M), WhatsApp (395M), Telegram (329M), Snapchat (327M), Zoom (300M) and Spotify (203M).

Subway Surfer and Roblox became to most downloaded games of 2021 by getting 191 million and 182 million downloads respectively. Other most popular gaming apps of 2021 were Bridge race (169M), Among us (152M), and Garena Free Fire (144M).

The most popular entertainment apps were Netflix (173M), YouTube (166M), Google Play Games (131M), Disney+ (126M), and Amazon Prime Video (120M). On the other hand, the most popular shopping apps were Shopee (203M), Shein (190M), Meesho (153M), and Amazon (148M). Despite being the 4th in global downloads, Amazon is still the most popular shopping app in the US, with Flipkart (93M) being second.

The most popular money transfer apps were PayPal (106M), Google Pay (82M), and PhonePe (79M). And naturally, since the cryptocurrency was gaining a lot of popularity in 2021, Binance (64M), Crypto.com (41M), and Coinbase (40M) become the most popular apps for transferring cryptos.

How many of the most popular apps in the world do you use on a daily basis? Is it even possible to live without them? Share your thoughts in the comments below.