This Week in Apps - Instagram's Still Got It!
This Week in Apps is a short, no-fluff, round-up of interesting things that happened in the mobile industry. Here are our top highlights.
U.S. Revenue Index (vs. 30 days ago)
Insights
1. Instagram's Battle with TikTok Expands and TikTok's Hurting
CapCut has become synonymous with short-form video editing thanks to its deep ties to TikTok, its owner. For years, it's been the go-to choice for TikTok creators looking to cut, polish, and publish their clips, quickly eclipsing incumbents.
Rival Meta didn't like that, obviously, and has been working quietly to shift that balance.
Back in April, Meta launched Edits, a new app designed specifically for Instagram creators. And in just a few months, Edits has transformed from being too late to a formidable rival in the U.S.
Edits opened with a decent chunk of downloads, nearly 4M in the US in April, according to our estimates. A drop in the bucket when compared to (17%, if you prefer real numbers), but that was just the beginning. Appfigures Intelligence shows that by September, Edits' downloads doubled to a little over 8M, showing that Instagram's built-in creator ecosystem was ready for a tool of its own.
But that's not all Meta managed to do with Edits.
While CapCut remains dominant, looking at the trend, Edits has clearly managed to reduce CapCut's monthly downloads since its release. Our estimates show that CapCut's monthly downloads dropped by a whopping 22% in the US.
There's a small but big caveat, though: Edits is completely free. Just like how CapCut started. That makes Edits very accessible, but if it follows CapCut's strategy, that'll change in the future. CapCut, by contrast, has a large base of paying users who are seemingly sticking around and generating more than $60M of net revenue (after store fees) in September and growing fast.
Still, the battle is just beginning.
Meta has shown it can move quickly when it wants to, and Edits is already positioned as the natural choice for Instagram creators. The question now is whether CapCut's loyal paying base stays put or begins to drift.
2. The Spilling Continues! Tea Crosses 6M Downloads
Tea, a type of a social network to protect women who date online, went from being an unknown 3-year-old app with just a handful of downloads to the hottest app in the US App Store over the summer. For a short bit it even managed to dethrone ChatGPT as the #1 app!
A massive security stumble threatened to end its run early, but it apparently didn't.
The concept worked so well that a male-focused competitor, TeaOnHer, quickly emerged and caught traction.
I thought the pairs would fade as quickly as it rose. Instead, both managed to stabilize, recover, create a new niche, and get a lot of downloads.
According to Appfigures Intelligence, Tea crossed a big milestone a few days ago: 6M downloads.
Although the app has been around since 2023, downloads started climbing quickly in May and really exploded in July as the app was mentioned on TikTok. Our estimates show that since July, Tea has seen an average of 50K new daily downloads from the App Store and Google Play - but mostly from the App Store.
Rival TeaOnHer, the same concept but for men, came out just three months ago and has already accumulated 2.1M downloads, according to our estimates. It also stumbled with its security, but with a similar average daily downloads of 43K, that seems to be old news.
Tea, which gets all its downloads from the US, ranks #7 in the US App Store right now while TeaOnHer, which is more international, ranks #51 in the US.
What's driving the pair's success? Scarcity.
There's nothing like Tea or TeaOnHer for online daters. The thing is, if you've ever used a dating app you probably wanted what these two offer. Their execution might not be the best, and security stumbled are concerning, but until a formidable competitor comes along, these two are the only game in town.
I don't know how long this tea party will go on for, but if I were either I'd make sure to capitalize on the scarcity. It won't last long.
See Appfigures In Action
Better intelligence to beat the competition faster!
3. Claude is a Money-Making Machine! Well, Kind Of
Claude, Anthropic's AI Assistant, doesn't have the same name recognition as ChatGPT, Grok, or even Perplexity. In terms of downloads, Claude's 15M estimates downloads don't come close to ChatGPT's nearly 800M downloads. Sure, Claude hasn't been around as long, but even much newer entrant, Grok, put it in its rear view mirror with its 51M estimated downloads.
But while this sounds pretty grim for Anthropic, scale isn’t the only measure of success in this market, and Claude shows it's almost on part with ChatGPT in one very important metrics - Revenue per Download.
I compared the revenue per download of Claude, ChatGPT, Grok and Perplexity, the most popular first-party AI assistants right now expecting Claude's to be fairly low. But it wasn't!
Appfigures Intelligence shows that on average, Claude gets $2.97 per download. That's net, which means what Anthropic gets to keep after Apple and Google fees. That is within striking distance of ChatGPT's $3.14 per download.
This is important because Grok and Perplexity don't even get a whole dollar per download. That's a big difference.
Will the high revenue per download remain if downloads scale? Maybe.
A smaller user base and not being a household name gives Claude's average an advantage. Fewer users download the app but those who do know why and are more likely to pay.
In September, those users spent $5.6M via the App Store and Google Play, according to our estimates. That's lower than ChatGPT and Grok, but nothing to chuckle at.
I believe there's a lot more Anthropic can do to make Claude competitive on the App Store, and if the revenue per download sticks, it'll be worth the investment.
4. Can Games Recover After the Summer Rush? Here Are the Most Downloaded Mobile Games in the World
I crunched the numbers and ranked the most downloaded mobile games in September, which was one of the busiest months in terms of chart movement! To help see the nuances better I extended the figures a decimal point. It's needed here.
Let's start at the top, because nearly every game shifted in our rankings for September.
Roblox was the most downloaded mobile game in September, just like in August. It's one of four games that didn't shift. but while it stayed put, its downloads didn't. The post-summer slump resulted in just 18.5M downloads, according to our estimates - down 17% when compared to August.
Subway Surfers and Block Blast came in second and third, just like August but with fewer downloads.
Prison Master, Vita Mahjong, Clash Royale, and FPS Strike Ops all rose in our September ranking while Pizza Ready and Ludo King both dropped.
Hyper casuals are on full display on the Google Play side of things while bigger titles are dominating the App Store. That's Prison Master on the Google Play side, which came out of nowhere and landed 3rd with 10.2M estimated downloads while Supercell's Clash Royale climbed all the way to #1 on the App Store with 5.2M estimated downloads.
All this momentum is good news for game publishers, even if downloads are lower for the bigger names.
According to Appfigures Intelligence, the top 10 most downloaded mobile games in the world saw 113M downloads from the App Store and Google Play in September. A 7% decrease from August, but that's to be expected post-summer.
Ready to Beat the Competition?
Appfigures has the intelligence you need
5. Game Revenue Plunges in September - These Are the Highest-Earning Mobile Games in the World
Most mobile games publishers don't love September, and with good reason. Kids got back to school and adults on vacation go back to work taking their in-app purchases back with them.
This year, that results in about $70M of post-store-fee revenue going poof.
I crunched the numbers and ranked the highest-earning mobile games in September, and while almost every game shifted, the top remained the same as August's.
Whiteout Survival was the highest earning mobile game in the world in September, bringing in an estimated $113M of net revenue from the App Store and Google Play, where it ranked 2nd and 5th, respectively., according to our estimates.
Last War came in 2nd, Royal Match in 3rd, and Monopoly Go in 4th - the same exact ranking as August but with less revenue.
But all that money wasn't completely gone. Some has shifted.
Clash Royal rose a spot into 5th place and almost every game below it shifted as well.
Clash Royale had an amazing month, earning $97M after fees, a $5M increase from August, according to our estimates. It also climbed up to 3rd place on the App Store's highest earners chart for September, where the majority of the game's revenue comes from.
One other thing to pay attention to is Tencent's domination of the App Store, where it now has three titles in the top ten, including Honor of Kings (#1), PUBG Mobile (#7), and the China-only version of TFT Mobile ($#9).
Apple's focus on China might be one of Tim Cook's biggest achievements as CEO.
According to Appfigures Intelligence, the top 10 highest-earning games earned $895M in net revenue in September, a 7% drop from August's total and the second month in a row under $1B. But there's hope - the holidays are right around the corner. Is your game ready?
App Intelligence for Everyone!
The insights in this report come right out of our App Intelligence platform, which offers access to download and revenue estimates, installed SDKs, and more! Learn more about the tools or schedule a demo with our team to get started.
Are you a Journalist? You can get access to our app and market intelligence for free through the Appfigures for Journalists program. Contact us for more details.
All figures included in this report are estimated. Unless specified otherwise, estimated revenue is always net, meaning it's the amount the developer earned after Apple and Google took their fee.
