The most downloaded U.S. retail apps are…
Mobile shoppers in the U.S. are showing a definite interest in budget pricing.
The annual 2025 Sensor Tower State of Mobile study includes an analysis of the top five most downloaded retail apps both in the U.S. and worldwide.
The top five U.S. retail apps by download in 2024 were:
- Temu
- Shein
- Amazon
- Walmart
- Shop
Globally, the top five retail apps by download in 2024 were:
- Temu
- Shein
- Meesho
- Amazon
- Shopee
These findings on the soaring popularity of Temu align with previously released AppMagic data which indicated that as of September 2024, U.S consumers had downloaded the Temu app more than 200 million times, or 27% of Temu’s total downloads since its release in 2022.
[READ MORE: Study: Temu eclipses Amazon in monthly downloads]
Statista and AppMagic data also shows that the Temu shopping app hit 337 million downloads in 2023, or nearly 80% more than the Amazon, app. In addition, the data indicates Temu was downloaded almost 55 million times worldwide in August, or 42% more than in the same month in 2023.
There were also more than 50 million Temu downloads per month in May, June and July 2024, three times more than Amazon.
It remains to be seen if Temu and Shein’s popularity with U.S. consumers will be affected by the recent executive order issued by President Trump which placed a 10% tariff on imports from China (Temu and Shein are both closely connected to the Chinese mainland and many of the items they sell in the U.S. are imported from China). UPDATE: As of Feb. 7, President Trump has delayed the crackdown and restored the provision that allows low-value shipments to avoid taxes and tariffs.
Other 2024 Sensor Tower global findings
Consumer spending on in-app purchases and subscriptions hit $150 billion, an increase of 13% year-over-year.
Consumers spent 4.2 trillion (+5.8% year-over-year) total hours on mobile worldwide. However, app downloads fell slightly to 136 billion (-1% year-over-year).
For the fourth consecutive year, growth in consumer spend on non-gaming apps outpaced games, with spend in non-games increasing by nearly $14 billion, or 25% year-over-year.
Consumers spent nearly $1.1 billion (+200% year-over-year) on generative AI apps such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Doubao. Time spent in apps like Character AI and ChatGPT nearly eclipsed 7.7 billion hours, and apps mentioning AI were downloaded 17 billion times.
