The most downloaded Android apps from alternative app stores in 2025

MALAGA, Spain - March 10, 2025 - PRLog -- Uptodown, the multi-platform app store specialized in Android with over 100 million unique users per month, publishes a report listing the most downloaded apps from its marketplace during the first weeks of 2025. Said report is based on its traffic statistics from a catalog of 260,000 apps between January 1 and February 12 of this year.

TikTok, WhatsApp Messenger and Capcut lead the global ranking

Users' uncertainty about the potential US government blocking of apps from the Chinese giant ByteDance led to an over 300% increase (compared to previous months' data) in the download volume of the well-known social media from Uptodown, which became the alternative source during the actual temporary blocking of the Google app store on January 19.

Battle Royale, leading the mobile video games category

Over the years, Uptodown's top-most downloaded video games have been dominated by the different incarnations of the well-known PUBG Mobile, which has more than 700 million cumulative downloads between all its versions —although, during this report's research period, it has been surpassed by its direct competitors, Fortnite and Free Fire Advance. The latter is an incarnation to test the most up-to-date features of Garena's successful game.

Meta dominates the social ecosystem

Apart from the aforementioned TikTok, Meta dominates everything related to social media apps and instant messaging. As the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, virtually all the top downloads come from the various incarnations of those apps. A special mention goes to the boom of Lite versions for some of its services, which are getting almost as many downloads as their big sisters due to the demand for lightweight alternatives in countries with a medium-low range of mobile devices.

Read the full report here | https://blog.en.uptodown.com/most-downloaded-apps-alterna...

Top 5 most downloaded apps by category

TOP 5 MESSAGING APPS
WhatsApp Messenger
Messenger (Meta)
Telegram
Messenger Lite
WhatsApp Business

TOP 5 SOCIAL APPS
TikTok
Instagram
YouTube
Facebook
Facebook Lite

TOP 5 WEB BROWSERS

Google Chrome
Kiwi Browser
UC Browser
Opera Mini
Brave Browser

TOP 5 VIDEO GAMES

Free Fire Advance
Fortnite
PUBG Mobile
Gacha Life
EA Sports FC Mobile 25

TOP 5 VIDEO/AUDIO APPS
Capcut
Spotify
MX Player
Netflix
YouTube Music

TOP 5 VPN APPS
Secure VPN
SuperVPN Fast VPN Client
Turbo VPN
Snap VPN
Thunder VPN