Americans certainly love using Facebook and YouTube on their phones. Nielsen just released data confirming the apps from these video powerhouses were the two most-used smartphone apps in the U.S. from January to October of 2015.
Facebook’s main social app landed the top spot on Nielsen’s most-used apps in 2015, with nearly 127 million unique users per month. This figure is an 8% increase year-over-year; in 2014, Facebook’s app was also in the top spot, clocking in at 118 million monthly unique users from January to October. The Facebook Messenger app, which was ranked #7 last year, rose four whole positions thanks to a whopping 31% yearly increase in usage. Messenger now boasts roughly 96 million monthly uniques.
As for YouTube, Google’s online video site continues to holds a firm place in the top few spots on Nielsen’s most-used app chart. In 2014, YouTube’s app actually held the third place position with around 88 million uniques. This year, the video app stole the #2 position (previously held by Google Search
) with 97 million unique monthly visitors, a 5% increase year-over-year. The remainder of the apps on Nielsen’s 2015 list hail from Google (Search, Play, Maps, and Gmail), Facebook (Instagram), and Apple (Maps and Music).Netflix’s app has reached a milestone to be proud of, as well. For the first time ever, the streaming service’s app landed in the ninth spot on App Annie’s 2015 chart for top-grossing apps worldwide in the Apple App Store. Netflix’s app wasn’t previously on the top-grossing list because users weren’t able to subscribe to the Netflix service through its iOS app until September 2015.
You can check out more of Nielsen’s digital findings for 2015 by visiting the company’s blog.
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