Most Popular App In The US? It's Facebook (Thanks To Apple)

Jan 23, 2013 at 4:29pm ET by Matt McGee

mobile-apps-200px Facebook can thank Apple for helping making it the top overall mobile app in the U.S. in 2012, according to new numbers out today from the comScore Mobile Metrix service.

ComScore says Facebook ended the year with more than 85 million unique adult visitors — that’s on both Android and iOS. It’s about 11 million more unique visitors than Google Maps. After Facebook, Google apps hold down the next five spots.

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Facebook and Google Maps were pretty much neck-and-neck for several months last year, but comScore says Google Maps usage saw a significant decline after Apple dumped it from iOS and replaced it with its own maps app:

Apple’s decision to replace Google Maps with Apple Maps on iOS 6 also caused a decline in Google Maps usage in October, which is largely responsible for the position swap. Meanwhile, Google Maps has been clawing its way back the past few months after getting reinstated on iOS 6, so look for the competition for the #1 spot to heat up as we head into 2013.

Here’s comScore’s look at the race in 2012 between Google Maps and Facebook.

In addition to being the most popular app in the U.S., comScore also says Facebook also leads in share of time spent. Facebook accounts for 23 percent of time spent using apps. Several apps are a distant second — Instagram, Gmail, Google Maps and YouTube all have three percent of time spent or less.

Onavo released its own look at mobile app popularity in the U.S. today, taking a slightly different approach to comScore and focusing specifically on several Google-owned apps.

Onavo says the Google Maps app ended 2012 with almost 30 percent “market share” in the U.S., which I take to mean it’s been downloaded by that percent of smartphone users — or perhaps just iOS users. (It’s not clear.)

(Stock image via Shutterstock.com. Used under license.)

About The Author: Matt McGee is Editor-In-Chief of Marketing Land. His news career includes time spent in TV, radio, and print journalism. His web career continues to include a small number of SEO and social media consulting clients, as well as regular speaking engagements at marketing events around the US. He blogs at Small Business Search Marketing and can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee and/or on Google Plus. You can read Matt's disclosures on his personal blog. See more articles by Matt McGee

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