When India banned TikTok, along with 58 other Chinese apps last year, there were apprehensions that the loss of a major market may hit the short video platform. TikTok had some maddeningly huge following in India, especially in its rural hinterlands.
But despite India being off its charts, TikTok continues to dominate the global apps scene. It was the most downloaded non-gaming app worldwide in April 2021, with over 59 million new downloads recorded in the space of a month. It was the chart-topper in March, too.
India tops Facebook downloads
According to data from Sensor Tower, the countries with the largest number of TikTok installs were from Brazil at 13%, followed by Douyin in China at 12%.
"Facebook was the second most installed non-gaming app worldwide last month with more than 53 million installs. The countries with the largest number of Facebook installs were from India at 26%, followed by the United States at 7%. Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger rounded out the top five most installed non-gaming apps worldwide for the month.
The Sensor Tower numbers include downloads for the App Store and Google Play worldwide between April 1 and 30, 2021.
Hotstar breaks into top 10 on Play Store downloads
While TikTok tops downloads from Apple's App Store in April, Facebook leads the way on Android. On the other hand, TikTok was number two in Google Play Store, Facebook was at 5th place in iOS App store.
With April being the month of the IPL, Hotstar app, on which the T20 league was streamed, managed to break into the top. It was the only OTT app in the entire list. It may have to thank T20 cricket for its rise in popularity.
Interestingly, WhatsApp downloads managed to beat the numbers put up by its main competitors who had made impressive gains in March.
Apple apps and Google pre-installed apps were excluded from the report. Android estimates did not include third-party stores.
