What is the most used mobile app in the world?

Going by numbers the companies themselves publish, Google and Meta lead. Google says Gmail has 3 billion users, Google Maps more than 2 billion monthly users and YouTube billions of monthly logged-in users. Meta says Facebook and WhatsApp each have more than 2 billion daily users and Instagram 2 billion daily users. Companies measure users differently, so there is no single official winner.

Which AI app has the most users?

ChatGPT, with more than 1.2 billion weekly users according to OpenAI (October 2026). Google says its Gemini app has more than 1 billion monthly users (Q3 2026). One is a weekly count and the other monthly, so they are not directly comparable.

What is the most successful music app?

Spotify, with 788 million monthly users in Q3 2026 by its own count. Google reports more than 150 million subscribers (YouTube Music and Premium combined) for YouTube Music and YouTube Premium together.

Why are apps not ranked by downloads?

Download counts mostly come from app-store tracking firms, which estimate them. This database only uses numbers the app's own company has published, such as monthly users from an earnings report, so every figure can be checked at its source.

Are these numbers for phones only?

No. Most companies report users across phones, computers, tablets and TVs together, so each figure covers the whole service. Where a figure covers more than one app, or leaves some users out, the metric says so.

Why are TikTok, Messenger and Candy Crush not listed?

We could not confirm a recent user figure for them published by their own companies, and this database never uses estimates from third parties. Apps are added as soon as an official figure is available.

How often is this database updated?

Every day. Figures are replaced as soon as a company publishes a newer one, source links are rechecked, and apps whose official figures are more than two years old are removed.

Database

Most successful mobile apps

Name: Most successful mobile apps
Creator: Best Productivity Resources
Published: 2026-11-01
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

41 of the world's most successful mobile apps across 15 categories, with the latest user numbers their own companies have published. Every figure links to the report it came from, and the list is checked every day.

Short answer

By the figures their own companies publish, the most successful mobile apps are Gmail (3 billion users), Facebook and WhatsApp (each more than 2 billion daily users), Instagram (2 billion daily users), Google Maps (more than 2 billion monthly users) and YouTube (billions of monthly logged-in users). The biggest newer apps are AI assistants: ChatGPT (more than 1.2 billion weekly users, October 2026) and Google Gemini (more than 1 billion monthly users, Q3 2026).

Updated November 2026

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Companies count users in different ways (monthly, daily or weekly users, customers or subscribers), so each figure is shown with the company's own wording and date.

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Frequently asked questions

What is the most used mobile app in the world?: Going by numbers the companies themselves publish, Google and Meta lead. Google says Gmail has 3 billion users, Google Maps more than 2 billion monthly users and YouTube billions of monthly logged-in users. Meta says Facebook and WhatsApp each have more than 2 billion daily users and Instagram 2 billion daily users. Companies measure users differently, so there is no single official winner.
Which AI app has the most users?: ChatGPT, with more than 1.2 billion weekly users according to OpenAI (October 2026). Google says its Gemini app has more than 1 billion monthly users (Q3 2026). One is a weekly count and the other monthly, so they are not directly comparable.
What is the most successful music app?: Spotify, with 788 million monthly users in Q3 2026 by its own count. Google reports more than 150 million subscribers (YouTube Music and Premium combined) for YouTube Music and YouTube Premium together.
Why are apps not ranked by downloads?: Download counts mostly come from app-store tracking firms, which estimate them. This database only uses numbers the app's own company has published, such as monthly users from an earnings report, so every figure can be checked at its source.
Are these numbers for phones only?: No. Most companies report users across phones, computers, tablets and TVs together, so each figure covers the whole service. Where a figure covers more than one app, or leaves some users out, the metric says so.
Why are TikTok, Messenger and Candy Crush not listed?: We could not confirm a recent user figure for them published by their own companies, and this database never uses estimates from third parties. Apps are added as soon as an official figure is available.
How often is this database updated?: Every day. Figures are replaced as soon as a company publishes a newer one, source links are rechecked, and apps whose official figures are more than two years old are removed.

How this database is built

An app makes the list when its own company has published how many people use it, and that number puts it among the largest apps in its category. Every figure comes from the company itself: an earnings release, a shareholder letter, a filing or its official newsroom. Numbers that only appear in news stories, app-store trackers or roundup sites are left out, and so are apps whose makers have not shared a figure in the last two years.

Most companies report users across all their devices, not just phones, so the numbers cover each service as a whole. Some figures cover a company's whole platform rather than one app; the metric says so where that applies. A daily user count is not the same as a monthly one, so the default order is a rough guide rather than a strict ranking.

The database is checked every day. When a company publishes a newer figure it replaces the old one, broken source links are fixed, and apps whose figures go stale are removed. Spotted something out of date? Tell us on the contact page and see our corrections log. App names are trademarks of their owners; this page is not affiliated with any of them.

Cite this page

You're welcome to use this data. Please link back to this page and to the original source.

Best Productivity Resources (2026). Most successful mobile apps: a database of 41 apps by reported users. Updated November 2026. https://bestproductivityresources.com/most-successful-mobile-apps

<a href="https://bestproductivityresources.com/most-successful-mobile-apps">Most successful mobile apps</a> (Best Productivity Resources)