Buzz
If you installed TikTok in 2022, you joined around 672 million others. This surge helped TikTok secure the top spot on the list of the year’s most downloaded apps, surpassing Instagram by 124 million downloads.
These figures reflect global download numbers from both Google Play and Apple’s App Store, covering the period from January 1 to December 20, 2022. They were initially collected by Apptopia and later featured by various outlets, most recently by Visual Capitalist, courtesy of Business of Apps.
TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, also boasts another app in the top five: CapCut, a video-editing app widely used by TikTokers. It secured fourth place with 357 million downloads, just behind WhatsApp—a messaging platform among several owned by Meta, including WhatsApp Business, Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, and Facebook Lite (a lighter version of Facebook that uses less data and storage).
People aren’t only downloading social media and messaging apps. There’s also a range of popular games, such as Subway Surfers, Stumble Guys, and Candy Crush Saga; streaming platforms like Netflix and Disney+; plus numerous shopping apps, including SHEIN and Amazon.
While some apps didn’t make it into the top 25, they still excelled within their respective categories—such as McDonald’s, which topped the food and drink category with 127 million downloads, and Duolingo, which led the education category with 98 million downloads worldwide.
Check out the full list of the top 25 performers below and explore more insights from Apptopia’s analysis here.
