Google Play Store reportedly hit 28.3 billion app downloads in Q1 2022, led by Instagram

Ben Schoon | Apr 27 2022 - 9:02 am PT

According to a new report, the Google Play Store drove an increase in the number of app downloaded during the first quarter of 2022, and to no one’s surprise it was TikTok that led the charge.

SensorTower reports that the Google Play Store as a whole saw 28.3 billion individual app downloads during Q1 2022 alone. That’s only moderate growth compared to the same time a year before, which saw roughly 28 billion downloads. Google’s number did dwarf Apple’s, though, with the App Store generating a mere 8.6 billion downloads during the same time frame.

Of course, the top apps across both platforms were exactly what most folks would expect. TikTok led the charge, crossing 3.5 billion all-time downloads across the Play Store and App Store as of Q1 2022. Meta’s Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp took the next three slots. Telegram rounds out the top five most downloaded apps in Q1 2022, with Android downloads being the vast majority of the new users.

Breaking down those numbers to Android specifically, though, Instgram and Facebook remained on top for downloads with just 120 million downloads each. TikTok took the third slot on Android, with just shy of 120 million downloads in Q1. In the United States, though, TikTok had a commanding lead of the market.

Notably, too, Google lost its slot as the top publisher across Google Play and the Apple App Store for the first time since 2020. This report claims that Meta, especially thanks to Google Play numbers, saw more downloads that Google-owned apps, though the total was only separated by four million downloads.

Mobile games remained the top category for downloads as well, with 2.1% growth on Google Play to 12.03 billion game downloads in Q1 2022. The most popular games during Q1 were Garena Free Fire, Subway Surfers, and Merge Master.