Updated October 2026: This post has been expanded from its original September 2020 version from a single ranking image into a sourced look at the most downloaded apps of August 2020, the pandemic-era trends behind them, and how download rankings are measured. It is a historical account; details describe the time it covers, not today.
In August 2020, the world's app charts told the story of a strange year. A short-video app facing a possible ban in the United States was still the most downloaded non-game app on the planet. A video-meeting service that few consumers had heard of a year earlier sat right behind it. And the familiar names, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, filled out the rest of the top five.
The original version of this post shared a ranking image without context. This update explains what the August 2020 rankings showed, how they fit the pandemic year, and what these download charts actually measure. Figures come mainly from Sensor Tower, an app analytics firm that publishes monthly worldwide rankings for Apple's App Store and Google Play.
The top five non-game apps in August 2020
According to Sensor Tower's estimates for August 2020:
- TikTok: about 63.3 million installs, up 1.6% from August 2019. Indonesia accounted for 11% of those downloads and Brazil for 9%.
- Zoom: about 52.2 million installs, roughly 22 times its August 2019 total. India accounted for 25% of Zoom's installs and the United States for 19.5%.
Sensor Tower's text did not give install numbers for places three through five. Its separate social-media ranking for the same month put Facebook at more than 51.6 million installs, with India the largest market at 25%. In the App Store's social category alone, TikTok led, followed by Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and Pinterest.
How August fit into 2020
August was a quieter month than the spring. When lockdowns began, downloads of social, video and meeting apps surged, and TikTok and Zoom traded the top spot. Looking at Sensor Tower's monthly reports side by side shows how the rankings shifted through the year.
| Month (2020) | No. 1 app (installs) | No. 2 app (installs) | Rest of the top five |
|---|---|---|---|
| March | TikTok (115.2M) | WhatsApp (76.3M) | Zoom, Facebook, Messenger |
| April | Zoom (131M) | TikTok (107M+) | Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram |
| May | TikTok (111.9M) | Zoom (94.6M) | WhatsApp, Facebook, Messenger |
| June | TikTok (87M+) | Zoom (71.2M) | Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram |
| July | TikTok (65.2M) | Facebook (53.6M) | Zoom, Instagram, WhatsApp |
| August | TikTok (63.3M) | Zoom (52.2M) | Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp |
| September | TikTok (61.1M) | Zoom (about 55M) | Facebook, WhatsApp, Google Meet |
Source: Sensor Tower monthly "Top Apps Worldwide by Downloads" reports. Estimates for non-game apps on the App Store and Google Play; TikTok figures include its Chinese version, Douyin.
Zoom's extraordinary year
Zoom's numbers capture the shift to remote work and school more clearly than any other app. In April 2020 it was the most downloaded non-game app in the world with about 131 million installs, around 60 times its total a year earlier. Monthly installs eased as the year went on, but in August they were still more than 20 times higher than in August 2019. In September, Google Meet also joined the top five, a sign that video meetings had become a permanent part of daily life.
TikTok's turbulent summer
TikTok's downloads fell from more than 100 million a month in spring to about 63 million in August. A major reason was India. On June 29, 2020, India's government banned TikTok and dozens of other Chinese apps, citing national security and data concerns. Sensor Tower data cited by CNBC suggested India had been the source of roughly 30% of TikTok's downloads.
In the United States, President Trump signed an executive order on August 6, 2020, that would bar transactions with TikTok and WeChat after 45 days, increasing pressure on TikTok's owner ByteDance to sell its U.S. operations. Microsoft and Oracle were among the companies reported to be in talks. Despite the uncertainty, TikTok remained the world's most downloaded non-game app in August, September and for the third quarter as a whole.
How app download rankings are measured
Apple and Google do not publish exact download counts for other companies' apps. Rankings like these come from analytics firms that build statistical estimates. Sensor Tower's monthly reports note several important rules:
- They are estimates. Figures come from models in Sensor Tower's Store Intelligence platform, not from official counts.
- Only unique installs count. Sensor Tower reports unique installs rather than every download event.
- Pre-installed apps are excluded. Apple's own apps and Google's pre-installed apps, such as YouTube or Gmail on many Android phones, are left out.
- Third-party Android stores are excluded. This matters in China, where Google Play is not available and many Android users download apps from other stores. As a result, Chinese Android downloads are largely missing from these rankings.
- Versions are combined. Figures add up all versions of an app, such as Facebook and Facebook Lite, or TikTok and Douyin.
Downloads also measure new installs, not how many people use an app. Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram had billions of existing users in 2020, so they did not need to top the download charts to remain the most used apps in the world.
The bigger picture for 2020
Across the whole year, App Annie, another major analytics firm, estimated a record 218 billion app downloads in 2020, up 7% from 2019, and $143 billion in consumer spending on apps, up 20%. It reported that business apps such as Zoom and Google Meet grew 275% in the fourth quarter. Sensor Tower said combined App Store and Google Play installs had already passed 100 billion for the year by the end of September.
App Annie later renamed itself data.ai, and in March 2024 it was acquired by Sensor Tower, so the two sources quoted here are now part of the same company.
What happened next
The proposed U.S. ban on TikTok did not take effect in 2020, and the app went on to become one of the most downloaded apps of the following years. Zoom's downloads settled down from their pandemic peak but remained far above pre-2020 levels. The pattern of August 2020, with entertainment, video calling and messaging apps at the top, turned out to be a preview of how people would use their phones for years.
What this means for you today
- Treat download charts as a trend signal. A high ranking tells you an app is popular right now, not that it is the best choice for you or that it will still be around next year.
- Check permissions before installing a trending app. On both iPhone and Android, review which permissions an app requests, such as contacts, location, microphone or camera, and deny anything it does not need.
- Download only from official stores. When an app is in the news or restricted in some countries, fake versions often appear on websites and unofficial stores. Install from the App Store or Google Play and check the developer name.
- Clean up pandemic-era apps. Many people installed meeting, delivery and social apps in 2020 and never used them again. Deleting the ones you no longer need, and closing the accounts behind them, reduces how much of your data is stored by companies you no longer use.
Sources
- Sensor Tower: Top apps worldwide for August 2020 by downloads
- Sensor Tower: Top social media apps worldwide for August 2020
- Sensor Tower: Top apps worldwide for March 2020 by downloads
- Sensor Tower: Top apps worldwide for April 2020 by downloads
- Sensor Tower: Top apps worldwide for May 2020 by downloads
- Sensor Tower: Top apps worldwide for June 2020 by downloads
- Sensor Tower: Top apps worldwide for July 2020 by downloads
- Sensor Tower: Top apps worldwide for September 2020 by downloads
- Sensor Tower: Q3 2020 data digest
- TechRadar: TikTok is the world's most downloaded non-gaming app in August
- Cult of Mac: TikTok was the top app in August
- Gizchina: TikTok remains the most downloaded app globally in Q3 2020
- CNBC: India bans TikTok and dozens of other Chinese apps
- JURIST: Trump signs executive order imposing sanctions on TikTok and WeChat
- TechCrunch: App stores saw record 218 billion downloads in 2020
- Research Live / DRNO: Sensor Tower acquires data.ai
Top image: "Iphone, macbook and smartphone on a table (Unsplash)" by Alejandro Escamilla, CC0 1.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized). Charts by Thank You Robot.
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