TikTok Is The Most Downloaded App On iOS App Store For The Fifth Consecutive Quarter

According to Sensor Tower’s new report, TikTok was ranked the most downloaded app on Apple App Store for the fifth consecutive quarter after the significant scandal when TikTok was fined $5.7 million for violating US children’s privacy laws by FTC. This also led to TikTok’s 13-year-old age limit. In Q1, this app gained a significant number of download, reaching more than 33 million. This number helped it top the App Store ranking. The other apps in the top 5 were YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, respectively.

Furthermore, the report also claimed a good quarter of Twitter, which was at the 16^th position.

Due to the increase in App Store downloads, TikTok had a most significant quarter of download since Q1 2015. The number of App Store downloads is 11.7 million, which showed the increase of 3.6% every year. However, this did not mean that the number of active users also grew as the download rate does not necessarily translate to a larger user base.

Although TikTok succeeded with the first position on the App Store, it did not have the same achievement with Android devices in Q1.

There are differences between iOS and Android trends because of the better impression in emerging markets and a larger total user base. Instead of TikTok, the No. 1 app on Google Play was WhatsApp, with nearly 199 million installs, in the past quarter. The next positions belonged to Messenger, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram, respectively.

The result was not bad when  Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger as well as TikTok had more than 150 million downloads in Q1 2019.

In spite of not dominating the downloaded app chart on Android, TikTok did an excellent job in this quarter. Notably in India, indicated Sensor Tower’s former report, it saw 88.6 million new installs in Q1. This statistic was 8.2 times bigger than that in Q1 2018.

Nonetheless, the report also pointed out that the platform for sharing short videos may not gain that such good result in the next quarter due to the Indian incident happened in April in which TikTok was banned in India for spreading pornography. Although the prohibition was lifted after one month, TikTok lost at least 15 million downloads, which made April become its biggest-ever month, according to Sensor Tower’s estimation.

In the top 20, some apps seen are YouTube, YouTube Music, and YouTube Kids, which increased 29.1% every quarter and had 29 million downloads on Google Play.

After combining the statistics on both two app stores, the quarter’s No. 1 downloaded app was WhatsApp with more than 220 million installs on both the App Store and Google Play.

Top downloaded apps on App Store and Google Play in Q1

At the second position, Messenger saw nearly 203 million installs. It was followed by TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram, respectively.

There was no change in the rest of the top 10; however, PicsArt Photo Studio - a new app appeared in the top 20 thanks to the number of downloads in India.