You'll never guess the most installed game in the U.S. during the first quarter

For the first quarter of 2022, the most downloaded app worldwide was TikTok which reached a major milestone by becoming just the fifth app in history to have lifetime downloads over 3.5 billion. The other four apps to reach this figure are all owned by Meta. Since the start of 2018, no app has been installed on devices more than TikTok.

After TikTok, Instagram was the second most downloaded app during the period with the majority of its installs done on Android. Facebook was third with WhatsApp fourth. That gave Meta three of the top four apps downloaded. For Instagram, Q1 installs were down 7% on a quarter-over-quarter basis. Overall, it was the second-best quarter for the app since 2014.

The top five apps installed globally from the App Store hasn't changed over the past three quarters. Number one is TikTok which topped 70 million installs via the App Store during the first quarter for the third time as the app was led by a strong sequential 11% gain in App Store installations in Asia. YouTube was second followed by WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook.

Video editing app CapCut finished sixth with more than 30 million downloads, its best quarter ever on the App Store. It is developed by ByteDance, the same firm responsible for TikTok, and has been among the top ten App Store installs for the last five quarters. Rounding out the top ten are Messenger (7), Google Maps (8), WeChat (9), and Gmail (10).

You'd probably expect TikTok to be the most installed app for the first quarter on the Google Play Store. If so, you'd be wrong. That honor actually belongs to Instagram with stablemate Facebook in second. TikTok ended up in third place.

18% more shopping apps were installed during the first quarter of 2022 led by Shopee which set a company record with 96 million installations. The shopping platform is the leader in its category in Southeast Asia and Taiwan. Rounding out the top ten from the Play Store are WhatsApp (5), Telegram (6), Snapchat (7), Messenger (8), WhatsApp Business (9), and Spotify (10).

In the states, HBO Max had its best quarter for new downloads which placed it fifth. Americans seem to enjoy streaming video entertainment which explains why HBO Max did so well. Other streaming video apps in the first quarter's top 20 included second-place YouTube, Disney+ at number seven, and Netflix in 10th place. Peacock was 12th, and Hulu was 18th. Of those apps, only YouTube (11) and Netflix (16) showed up in Europe's top 20 app downloads for the first quarter.

In Asia, streaming entertainment apps were shut out of the top 20. Did someone ask about games? The top 20 games worldwide were led by Garena Free Fire, followed by Subway Surfers second, and Merge Master third. In fourth place was Roblox while Candy Crush Saga made it to the top five. PUBG Mobile was sixth with Ludo King in seventh. Rounding out the top ten were Race Master 3D (8th), Fishdom (9th), and Count Masters (10).

The top game downloaded in the U.S. overall and the App Store for the first quarter of 2022 was Wordle. The game came out of nowhere and ended up getting sold to The New York Times for a sum believed to be over $1 million. Wordle gives players six opportunities to figure out a word made of five letters. While letters can be duplicated in a word, players can rule out letters that they have already guessed.

Wordle has a new game only once a day adding to its appeal and players can also automatically have their score sent to friends and family members every day. Surprisingly, there is strategy involved and it looks like the game might have staying power. While the Times promised to keep the game free for now, it is believed that it will eventually add Wordle to its Games Subscription bundle.

Wordle didn't make the top 20 list of games installed in the U.S. from the Google Play Store. On that platform, the most installed game for Q1 2022 was Count Masters.

Worldwide, the top app publisher for the first quarter of 2022 was Meta which isn't a surprise thanks to apps like Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Messenger. Google was a close second with ByteDance (of TikTok fame) in third.

Overall installs for the first quarter worldwide (App Store and Google Play Store) were 36.9 billion, up from 36.4 billion on an annual basis. That was a 1.4% increase. App Store installs were 8.6 billion, up from 8.4 billion for a gain of 2.4%. Google Play Store downloads worldwide in Q1 amounted to 28.3 billion, up 1.1% from the 28 billion installed in Q1 of 2021.