Facebook, casual games dominate list of most popular iOS apps of all time

Posted:
in iPhone edited September 2015
According to fresh statistics from analytics firm App Annie published on Wednesday, social media giant Facebook is responsible for four of the top ten most downloaded iOS apps of all time, with Google and Apple titles in tow.




App Annie broke down the results of its study, which ranks iOS apps by worldwide downloads and revenue, into two sections: games and everything else.

Collectively, Facebook, Google and Apple dominated the most downloaded apps list, taking eight of the top ten spots. Twitter and Skype were the lone standouts. Facebook's flagship app took the No. 1 slot, followed by Facebook Messenger, YouTube, Instagram and Skype.

Apple's Find My iPhone and, interestingly, iTunes U came in 7th and 10th, respectively. App Annie said China was in part to thank for the strong iTunes U performance, as the country's download tally came in a close second to the U.S.




All time apps ranked by revenue tells a different story, with Pandora taking the top spot followed by messaging app Line, dating service Zoosk, Apple's Pages word processor and Spotify. Apple's Pages was the only app in the top ten to generate all its revenue from paid downloads, as opposed to in-app purchases and subscriptions.

Classic titles pulled in the most downloads in the gaming category, with Candy Crush Saga placing first followed by Fruit Ninja and Angry Birds. Casual games account for nine of the ten top-ranking apps, while seven rely on the swiping gesture control scheme pioneered by Apple's iPhone.

As for gaming revenue, Clash of Clans and Candy Crush place first and second, with Puzzle & Dragons coming in third.




Looking at app usage, App Annie discovered that many of the most-downloaded and top-grossing titles of all time have the most monthly active users, a trend reflected in both games and non-game categories. The results serve as a testament to the stickiness and staying power of these elite apps as enabled through Apple's iOS platform.

For its study, App Annie ranked apps based on data collated from July 2010 through July 2015.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 20

    Ugh. Every one of those games make me cringe. Casual games are here to stay but man I don't care for them...

  • Reply 2 of 20
    entropysentropys Posts: 4,152member
    I would have thought find my iPhone would be number 1. That Facebook is number 1 and 2 is disturbing. And hard to believe.
  • Reply 3 of 20
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Entropys View Post



    I would have thought find my iPhone would be number 1. That Facebook is number 1 and 2 is disturbing. And hard to believe.

     

    I would expect Apple to embed the FMiP app into iOS.

     

    As for Facebook, that people still use that is beyond me. It seems to be mostly used to hang out your laundry, whether it's clean or dirty, doesn't matter. One pic after the other of what people are having for dinner, or what the view is from their bed by the pool while on holiday. Disturbing to say the least!

  • Reply 4 of 20

    Actually Facebook have 4 OUT OF TOP 6 iOS App downloads.



    @ entropys "Hard to believe?"



    - check out Globalstats and you will see Facebook has 84% of social media worldwide internet usage, which is why they are taking so much mobile Ad revenue market share from Google

  • Reply 5 of 20

    @ PhilBoogie "One pic after the other of what people are having for dinner, or what the view is from their bed by the pool while on holiday. Disturbing to say the least!"

     

    Are you really so out of touch that you are not aware of Facebook News Feed?

     

    Did you not know you can follow most news media and publications, most breaking news and sporting and musical events and most celebrities, writers, journalists and sportspeople on Facebook? - And billions of people do?  

     

    Or that Facebook has rapidly overtaken YouTube as the No. ONE video site? AND as the preferred platform for video brand advertising?

     

    Or that Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp are growing exponentially and have rapidly becoming the top messenger sites outside China with 700 million and 800 million users - each more than doubling the number of monthly users in the last year?

     

    Or that Facebook Messenger is developing into a multi-media, news, voice and video communication, music and shopping platform?

     

    Or that Instagram is the second most popular social media site for the young, second only to Facebook itself?

     

    And that Facebook platforms are so absorbing and compulsive for most users, young and old alike, that engagement levels dwarf any other websites - with an average time spent per user of 46 minutes per day, with a billion users a day and 1.5 billion users a month?

  • Reply 6 of 20
    tenlytenly Posts: 710member
    Or that Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp are growing exponentially

    I admit that I was taking your post seriously until I saw this bullet. Now I'm afraid I have to ignore your entire post since I assume that most of your data is just made up. I would suggest that you ook up the definition of the word "exponentially".
  • Reply 7 of 20

    @ Tenly Your ignorance is only surpassed by your arrogance when you say idiotic things like: 

     

    "Now I'm afraid I have to ignore your entire post since I assume that most of your data is just made up. I would suggest that you ook up the definition of the word "exponentially".

     

    According to Encyclopaedia  Britannica the meaning of “exponential" is:

     

     very fast : increasingly rapid

    mathematics : including or using an exponent"

     

    The growth of both Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp comply with the above meaning

     

    WhatsApp was founded in 2009. The number of users had reached 200 million in April 2013. It doubled to 400 million in Dec. 2013. It has doubled again since then to reach 800 million by April 2015.

     

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WhatsApp

     

    http://www.statista.com/statistics/260819/number-of-monthly-active-whatsapp-users/

     

    Facebook Messenger has grown even faster. Facebook Messenger for Desktop for Mobile was launched in August 2011 and for Windows Desktop was launched in March 2012. By April 2014 it reached 200 million users. By June this year it had grown by 500 million users to reach 700 million users. It now has around 800 million users.

     

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_Messenger

     

    http://www.statista.com/statistics/417295/facebook-messenger-monthly-active-users/

     

    Both WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are likely soon to exceed 1 billion users each, perhaps by the end of this year, making them both extremely valuable platforms.

  • Reply 8 of 20
    tenlytenly Posts: 710member
    @ Tenly Your ignorance is only surpassed by your arrogance when you say idiotic things like: 

    "Now I'm afraid I have to ignore your entire post since I assume that most of your data is just made up. I would suggest that you ook up the definition of the word "exponentially".

     
    According to Encyclopaedia  Britannica the meaning of “<span style="line-height:22.399999618530273px;">exponential" is:</span>


    “<span style="line-height:22.399999618530273px;"> </span>
    <span style="line-height:1.4em;">very fast : increasingly rapid</span>

    mathematics : including or using an exponent"

    The growth of both Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp comply with the above meaning

    WhatsApp was founded in 2009. The number of users had reached 200 million in April 2013. It doubled to 400 million in Dec. 2013. It has doubled again since then to reach 800 million by April 2015.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WhatsApp

    http://www.statista.com/statistics/260819/number-of-monthly-active-whatsapp-users/

    Facebook Messenger has grown even faster. Facebook Messenger for Desktop for Mobile was launched in August 2011 and for Windows Desktop was launched in March 2012. By April 2014 it reached <span style="line-height:1.4em;">200 million users. By </span>
    June<span style="line-height:1.4em;"> this year it had grown by 500 million users to reach 700 million users. It now has around 800 million users.</span>


    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_Messenger

    http://www.statista.com/statistics/417295/facebook-messenger-monthly-active-users/

    Both WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are likely soon to exceed 1 billion users each, perhaps by the end of this year, making them both extremely valuable platforms.
    @ PhilBoogie "One pic after the other of what people are having for dinner, or what the view is from their bed by the pool while on holiday. Disturbing to say the least!"

    Are you really so out of touch that you are not aware of Facebook News Feed?

    Did you not know you can <span style="line-height:22.399999618530273px;">follow most news media and publications, most breaking news and sporting and musical events and most celebrities, writers, journalists and sportspeople on Facebook? - And billions of people do?  </span>



    Or that Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp are growing exponentially and have rapidly becoming the top messenger sites outside China with 700 million and 800 million users - each more than doubling the number of monthly users in the last year?

    Or that Facebook Messenger is developing into a multi-media, news, voice and video communication, music and shopping platform?

    Or that Instagram is the second most popular social media site for the young, second only to Facebook itself?

    And that Facebook platforms are so absorbing and compulsive for most users, young and old alike, that engagement levels dwarf any other websites - with an average time spent per user of 46 minutes per day, with a billion users a day and 1.5 billion users a month?

    Doubling is a better word. Exponentially means using an exponent which at its smallest would be an exponent of 2 - so if they have 700 million users amd they were growing exponentially they would grow to 700M x 700M = 4.9 x 10^17 - that's 4.9 followed by 17 0's - far more people than there are on the planet. Those services may have grown exponentially when they started - but they are certainly not growing exponentially any more.
  • Reply 9 of 20
    Social media dominates.

    Facebook still dominates social media. It's bigger than ever, in fact.

    Therefore, you don't even need to be told it ranks very, very high on the list to figure out that it ranks very, very high on the list.

    You might not like it personally, but it's part of iOS' strength (superiority, actually) as a platform for accessing and managing social media. And that's a big deal.
  • Reply 10 of 20
    "...of all time"? Really? It's been a whole 7 years and 2 months.
  • Reply 11 of 20

    I was hooked on Clash of Clans for about a year.



    The little village looks great.  Each little item has a beautiful icon as it goes from level 1 to level 10 or more. 

     

    The attacking is very well balanced.  Each little character has strengths and weaknesses.  They've done well in balancing the battles such that you can never fall back to doing just one thing and expecting it to always work.

     

    I mow my lawn in 90 minutes and rarely stop, even in 95 deg heat I don't break for water.  I recall once as I was approaching a major "Trophy" milestone in CoC, stopping the mower every 20 minutes to go inside and have a battle (after fresh army build-up), to keep the Trophies going up.

     

    And that was early in my CoC experience.



    Had to get off it. 

     

    I left my village with all the good stuff exposed on one side, all the defense on the other, with the wall-segments spelling out "BYE", and took it off the phone and ipads.

     

    Man.

  • Reply 12 of 20

    I would like to see trends as well. There is a huge difference between apps that "everybody" downloaded when they were new, and they are on decline, and others that are rising. 

     

    Take Google Maps, for instance, is there a significant impact/decline after Apple got their maps going?

    Also, Temple Run. That's quite old. Still in the Top of all times means that what came after didn't have that much of impact, not even stuff like CutTheRope, RealRacing etc.

  • Reply 13 of 20
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by PhilBoogie View Post

     

     

    I would expect Apple to embed the FMiP app into iOS.

     

    As for Facebook, that people still use that is beyond me. It seems to be mostly used to hang out your laundry, whether it's clean or dirty, doesn't matter. One pic after the other of what people are having for dinner, or what the view is from their bed by the pool while on holiday. Disturbing to say the least!


     

    I hate the idea of Facebook as much as any other rationale human being, but your comment isn't applicable to a good chunk of people who now use it. I'm in my mid-40's, have worked and lived in a dozen countries, have met hundreds of interesting people in my life so far, and whether I like it or not, FB is so ubiquitous that staying in touch with someone I became friends with 10 years ago but is now 4,000 miles away is relatively easy.

     

    My 'news feed' is not full of pictures of people's dinner, it's usually news stories or political observations people have found interesting, sports news of the teams my friends follow or play in themselves, births, deaths, weddings etc. I think the type of people you choose to become friends with and stay in touch with, will determine what you see on FB.

  • Reply 14 of 20
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by tenly View Post







    Doubling is a better word. Exponentially means using an exponent which at its smallest would be an exponent of 2 - so if they have 700 million users amd they were growing exponentially they would grow to 700M x 700M = 4.9 x 10^17 - that's 4.9 followed by 17 0's - far more people than there are on the planet. Those services may have grown exponentially when they started - but they are certainly not growing exponentially any more.



    You are gravely mistaken.

    Exponential growth means that growth rate is exponential. It has nothing to do with the number of users.

    So even the growth from 700M to 701M could be exponential, if the growth rate of this 1 Million would follow the exponential formula Xt=X0x(1+r)^t.

  • Reply 15 of 20
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Urahara View Post

     



    You are gravely mistaken.

    Exponential growth means that growth rate is exponential. It has nothing to do with the number of users.

    So even the growth from 700M to 701M could be exponential, if the growth rate of this 1 Million would follow the exponential formula Xt=X0x(1+r)^t.




    Actually, you'll find x(t) = X0*r^(t/tc) with r>1 and tc > 0 defines exponential growth. Negative tc or 0<r<1 is exponential decay, e.g.

     

    Just to be finicky :smokey:

  • Reply 16 of 20
    tenlytenly Posts: 710member

    Actually, you'll find x(t) = X0*r^(t/tc) with r>1 and tc > 0 defines exponential growth. Negative tc or 0<r<1 is exponential decay, e.g.

    Just to be finicky :smokey:
    I give up! I can't argue with math like that. I concede the point and apologize for the misconception!
  • Reply 17 of 20
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by tenly View Post





    I give up! I can't argue with math like that. I concede the point and apologize for the misconception!



    Well, Secular Investor didn't know what exponential growth was either ;)

  • Reply 18 of 20
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tenly View Post





    I give up! I can't argue with math like that. I concede the point and apologize for the misconception!



    It is not so complicated:

    - X0 is the start value.

    - b is the growth factor, and

    - tc is a time constant that defines how much time is needed to go form the value x to b*x.

     

    Here's an example:

    Let's say, we buy 10 hamster. So x0 = 10.

    Let's assume that the population doubles every 2 months. So b=2 and tc = 1m.

     

    Then after one year (=12 months) you will have x(12 months) = x0 * 2^(12months/2 months) = 10*2^6 = 640 rodents.

    At which point I would recommend to either open a hamster business or silently move to another city :-) 

  • Reply 19 of 20
    zoolook wrote: »

    I hate the idea of Facebook as much as any other rationale human being, but your comment isn't applicable to a good chunk of people who now use it. I'm in my mid-40's, have worked and lived in a dozen countries, have met hundreds of interesting people in my life so far, and whether I like it or not, FB is so ubiquitous that staying in touch with someone I became friends with 10 years ago but is now 4,000 miles away is relatively easy.

    My 'news feed' is not full of pictures of people's dinner, it's usually news stories or political observations people have found interesting, sports news of the teams my friends follow or play in themselves, births, deaths, weddings etc. I think the type of people you choose to become friends with and stay in touch with, will determine what you see on FB.

    That is a very good point. The posts will differ from the type of people whom you've befriended with. The concept of Facebook in and on itself is not the problem, it is how people are using it.

    I don't have an account, but sometimes a friend shows me their 'feed' and I'm quite disgusted for a lack of a better term. Next time I see her, I'll elaborate on my views on Facebook some more.


    tenly wrote: »
    I give up! I can't argue with math like that. I concede the point and apologize for the misconception!


    It is not so complicated:
    - X0 is the start value.
    - b is the growth factor, and
    - tc is a time constant that defines how much time is needed to go form the value x to b*x.

    Here's an example:
    Let's say, we buy 10 hamster. So x0 = 10.
    Let's assume that the population doubles every 2 months. So b=2 and tc = 1m.

    Then after one year (=12 months) you will have x(12 months) = x0 * 2^(12months/2 months) = 10*2^6 = 640 <em style="line-height:1.4em;">rodents.</em>

    At which point I would recommend to either open a hamster business or silently move to another city :-) 

    Hilarious! Also, thanks for the clear breakdown.
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