Apps 100

Unveiling The Fastest-Growing Mobile Apps of 2023

As consumer mobile usage reaches a tipping point, keeping your finger on the pulse of the app economy is the only way to maintain a competitive edge. Apps 100, an extension of our annual Digital 100 report, reveals the fastest-growing mobile apps on iOS and Android in the US. We've sifted through the noise, identifying winners with the largest year-over-year increase in Monthly Active Users (2022-2023). From the apps we all know and love to some unexpected newcomers, see who’s leading the digital revolution and unpack the tactics fueling their success.

Business

Fastest-Growing Business Apps:

The fastest-growing Business apps show US consumers searched for a side hustle in 2023. Many apps in the top 10 allow flexible ways to earn additional money. For the creative folk, Etsy Seller and Shopify give users seamless shop management. And for those with a little spare time, Spark Driver helps them earn by delivering Walmart orders at any time or place that suits them. Most other apps are on-the-go HR management, allowing employees to check their schedules and remain productive wherever they are.

Education

Fastest-Growing Education Apps:

The fastest-growing Education apps are a mixture of those used in academia and those for personal education purposes. The #1 app in this category, Plantum, allows users to snap a picture of a plant and then tells them what type of species it is, along with additional information such as how to care for it. Mimo, the coding education tool, rounds off the top 10, emphasizing how important coding has become as consumers look to upskill and make their jobs easier. Babbel earned the 4th spot as learning languages becomes gamified.

Food & Drinks

Fastest-Growing Food & Drinks Apps:

Fast food retailers offering rewards and offers to returning customers delivered exceptional growth - Dairy Queen, QDOBA, and Hardee’s. The top spot, however, belongs to Food Lion to Go, a grocery delivery and pick-up service. Meal planning resonated with US consumers in 2023. Factor, providing nutritionally balanced chef-prepped meals, increased their MAU by 136%, while recipe services, Tasty and eMeals, also landed on the top. With Too Good To Go, consumers can combine savings with eco-friendly behaviors; the app allows customers to buy restaurants' leftovers at a fraction of the original price.

Health & Fitness

Fastest-Growing Health & Fitness Apps:

The fastest-growing Health & Fitness apps include those intended to improve physical health (BetterMe, Renpho Health, Welltory, MyNetDiary, WHOOP, ClassPass) and those improving mental wellbeing (ShutEye, Balance). Men's health continues to transcend stigma as Hims grew over 2175% YoY. Hims offers treatments for sensitive male issues such as hair loss and ED and provides male skincare products.

Home & Real Estate

Fastest-Growing Home & Real Estate Apps:

Smart security systems continue to become more prominent, as shown in the fastest-growing Home app of 2023, Wansview Cloud, and the fifth-place winner, eufy Security. Smart apps are not limited to home security. Both GE’s Cync and SmartHQ made the list. These apps allow users to control multiple smart devices from one app. Apartment List grew by 25% as US consumers looked for new places to live, and rent payment app RentCafe grew by over 22%.

Personal Finance

Fastest-Growing Personal Finance Apps:

The fastest-growing Personal Finance apps portray a consumer who wants to get the most out of their purchases; those offering cashback and rewards were high on the list. Winners, Fidelity Bloom, Bilt Rewards, and Upgrade operate different business models, from providing credit cards to rewarding rent payments. Bright also makes the list with a smart AI-driven solution that helps consumers reduce debt and increase savings through personalized payment plans - an innovative example of the new age of AI accessibility. Lastly, Flex offers a Buy Now, Pay Later solution for cash-strapped consumers struggling with rent payments.

Photography

Fastest-Growing Photography Apps:

AI is the buzzword in this category, with the top five apps allowing consumers to create AI art or edit photos using AI. The fastest-growing app, LisaAI, enables users to create ‘hand-drawn’ versions of images or entirely new pieces of AI art using a few words as a prompt. While this is a new trend, two other winning apps are more retro and offer users the ability to make vintage digital photos and videos. Huji Cam alters video to make them appear as though they were shot on film, while Timestamp Camera adds dates and times to shots as was previously done on both film and digital cameras.

Shopping

Fastest-Growing Shopping Apps:

The retailer of the year, Temu, earned the top spot in the shopping category; their Super Bowl ads ignited the interest of US consumers, continuing throughout the year. Social shopping apps performed well — both Blidz and Flip.shop operate businesses that give users the ability to save money through the promotion of products and genuine user reviews. Whatnot, a social commerce platform based on communities, also saw impressive growth. Second-hand shopping gained popularity, especially for big-ticket purchases, with luxury platform Vestiaire Collective and refurbished tech goods site Backmarket grabbing a spot in the top 10.

Streaming & Media

Fastest-Growing Streaming & Media Apps:

The top spot in this category is held by The Chosen, a streaming app specifically designed for the Biblical series with the same name. This app is one of many niche programming apps to make the list, along with ViX, which broadcasts Spanish content, and Zeus, which provides exclusive reality TV. Although there is room for growth in this category among the big players, new entrants must offer something unique to make progress.

Travel & Tourism

Fastest-Growing Travel & Tourism Apps:

US consumers' desire to save money on long-distance travel was top of mind in 2023. The fastest-growing app is Airalo, which allows users to save on data roaming fees abroad. Budget airline easyJet also secured a spot in the top 10 - despite not operating any flights directly out of the US - along with price comparison service Super.com and the "price-hack" platform Skiplagged, which helps customers find cheaper flights by leaving the aircraft during layovers. For vacations closer to home, Universal and Seaworld theme parks proved popular destinations, rounding off the top 10.

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Methodology
The Digital 100 for Apps reveals the fastest-growing mobile apps in the US. To identify the winners, we analyzed Monthly Active Users (MAU) on both iOS and Android for 10 categories, ranking 100 apps with the fastest growth for 2023 vs. 2022. As part of the qualification process, each app had to have both iOS and Android versions, and a combined iOS and Android Average MAU exceeding 30K in 2022 and 300K in 2023.
We analyzed usage estimates of thousands of apps using Similarweb’s proprietary app data. This unique data and additional mobile app insights are available as part of our App Intelligence Premium Plus add-on, and combined with Similarweb’s web insights, provide a 360 view of the digital world.