TikTok is one of the fastest growing social media platforms in the world. Sensor Tower recently released its “Q1 2022: Store Intelligence Data Digest” report, with TikTok being the most downloaded app globally in Q1 2022. With over 3.5 billion historical downloads in the first quarter of 2021, the app has only become the fifth app (and the only one not part of Meta) to achieve this milestone.
TikTok has been downloaded more than 175 million times since the beginning of 2022. Currently, TikTok has surpassed 10 million downloads in the past nine quarters, while YouTube has surpassed the same threshold for eight consecutive quarters. According to the report, since WhatsApp was downloaded 250 million times globally in early 2018, no app has been downloaded more than TikTok.
There’s a lot to be said about TikTok’s success and where it’s headed. Social media applications are mainly dominated by their relevant trends, unique algorithms, and diverse communities for each niche topic. Just recently, its updates included an interactive plugin for in-feed ads and a comment test for private dislike buttons. It also recently launched its own AR development platform, Effect House.
When looking at global downloads for iPhone and iPad, the order of the top five apps has remained the same over the past three quarters. TikTok surpassed 70 million App Store downloads for only the third time in the first quarter of 2022, driven by 11% quarter-on-quarter growth in Asia. Despite being banned in India, which has one of the largest app install markets in the world, the app ranks third overall in Asia. It is #1 in the App Store, but #7 in Asia on Google Play.
In terms of overall U.S. downloads, TikTok has been the number one app every quarter since the first quarter of 2021. The last app to beat TikTok was Zoom in Q4 2020. Additionally, TikTok and YouTube have been the top two apps on the U.S. App Store each quarter since the first quarter of 2021. TikTok was also the No. 1 app on Google Play for the third consecutive quarter, with a 19% year-over-year increase in installs.
The same five apps have held the top spot in Europe for the past four quarters. TikTok and WhatsApp took the top two spots, while Instagram dropped to fourth place from the previous quarter. While WhatsApp has been the top app in the European App Store for the past seven quarters, TikTok has also maintained its top spot on Google Play over the same period.
These estimates by Sensor Tower include global downloads for iPhone, iPad and Google Play between January 1 and March 31, 2022. This does not include pre-installed apps. The company only reports unique installs, and Android estimates don’t include third-party stores. These numbers represent total installs across all app versions.