Facebook was the most-popular app of the year… again

Wow, what a surprise! It looks like Facebook was the most-popular app of the year! Sarcasm aside, not only was Facebook the most-popular app of the year by a significant margin, Facebook Messenger came in third place behind YouTube, but still managed to be the fastest-growing app of the year, with a 31% increase in monthly active users over last year. This is all according to a report from Nielsen, which showed that Apple, Facebook, and Google are dominating the app world yet again, with Facebook, YouTube, Messenger, Google Search, Google Play, Google Maps, Gmail, Instagram, Apple Music, and Apple Maps taking the top ten spots, in that order. 

Smartphone app junkie? We hear you, there it seems that this writer, in particular, has folders of apps on his phone that he swears he’ll use at some point, but likely won’t get to anytime soon. One thing we both likely have in common, however, is the Facebook app—according to new figures from Nielsen, it was the year’s top app with around 126,702,000 average monthly users. And it’s growing, too, as this unique user count is around eight percent or so higher than last year’s figures. “YouTube came in second with over 97 million average unique users each month, followed by Facebook Messenger with more than 96 million average unique users each month,” reads the report. “The apps with highest year-over-year change was Facebook Messenger with a 31% increase in users from 2014, and Apple Music, with a 26% growth.” Other apps taking up Nielsen’s top-ten list of most-used apps for the year include Google Search, Google Play, and Google Maps, at fourth, fifth, and sixth place, respectively. Gmail takes up seventh, Instagram comes in eighth, and Apple’s own Maps app just squeaks in at tenth place—with just over half the number of average monthly users of Google Maps.