Which dating app will you be using for St Valentine’s Day? We had a quick look at the dating apps sector across major countries to identify which were the leading apps in each market. One app has managed to be the worldwide market leader by far. However, the challengers depend from one country to another. Check out our report for further details.

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Plenty of Fish launched in 2003 and it shows. The problem I come across over and over again is that POF is filled with bots and scams, even though it may have the most users of any dating app. With over 6.5 million monthly downloads in May 2021, Tinder is the most downloaded dating application in the world. First released in April 2012, the American company introduced the swiping model. It is the all-time favorite dating app among 20-somethings — in fact, more than 85% of Tinder users are under 34. Top “LGBT” Dating Apps That are Free to Use (#4-8) Fun fact: About 20% of online daters identify as LGBTQ, even though they make up only about 4% of the total population.

Using our new App and Market Intelligence Add-Ons, we can rapidly pull data for top dating apps in major countries and compare their download share. Don’t miss out on these amazing new AppTweak features that will allow you to build great market research reports in only a couple of minutes.

For this analysis, we focused on some major mobile markets per continent. The selected countries were: the United States, Brazil, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, India, Japan, and South Korea.

For each country, we selected the top dating apps - we used our Market Intelligence Top Charts feature to rapidly identify top-performing dating apps in each market. The analyzed apps are: Tinder, Happn, Bumble, LivU, Hinge, Match, Coffee meets Bagel, and Inside Circle.

We then created a report in App Intelligence for these countries and apps to compare their downloads. In a couple of clicks, we could identify worldwide leading apps vs. local leaders. Read below to discover the market share of the leading dating app and which dating apps are specific to a country.

Tinder is n°1 worldwide dating app by far

When we sum the downloads of all the analyzed apps in all the considered countries, Tinder stands out as the leading app by far. This is true on both the App and Play Store.

The download history of analyzed apps across all selected countries and both App and Play Store.

The total downloads of the Tinder app are 3 times higher than the 2nd leading app Happn. Tinder represents 51% of overall downloads (across both Stores), Happn is far behind with 17% of downloads.

Online Dating Apps

Share of downloads by app (App and Play Store summed).

Except for Tinder, the top apps vary considerably from App to Play Store

If we look at the total downloads of these apps across the selected countries on the App Store and the Play Store separately, we see that apart from Tinder, the top apps are totally different. On the Play Store, Happn and LivU appear in the 2nd and 3rd positions with 23% and 12% of download share respectively. On the App Store, Bumble and Hinge are the apps behind Tinder with 22% and 15% market share.

Share of downloads by app: Apple App Store vs. Google Play Store

These numbers show how different apps focus on each store. Tinder has a leading presence in both stores, however, Bumble and Hinge get most of their downloads from the App Store (66% and 79% respectively). Happn and LivU, on the other hand, concentrate their downloads from the Play Store with 87% and 86% of download share.

Share of downloads from the App and Play Store for each app.

Some countries are more fragmented than others

If we dig into the data per country, we see that Tinder is always the leading app. However, 2nd and 3rd apps differ from one country to another. We can also see that some markets are more fragmented than others.

Top 3 dating apps across countries (downloads from App and Play Store are summed)

According to the graphs above, we can see that the apps Bumble and LivU are the two dating apps that have managed to tap into the largest number of countries. Bumble appears among the top 3 apps in 7 of the 9 countries, and LivU among 5 out of 9.

We can also see that the app Happn is a real Tinder challenger in Brazil, India, and France. In these countries, Tinder’s position as leader isn’t as established as elsewhere, with the Indian market being the most fragmented. On the other hand, we can see that in Germany, Japan, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia, Tinder has totally crushed the competition with more than 70% of download share each time.

In addition, it’s interesting to note that Hinge appears in the top 3 dating apps of the English markets (US and UK), highlighting a focused strategy for that app. This also explains why the app gets such a high share of downloads from the App Store since both these markets have a high share of iPhones.

Finally, to totally interpret these numbers, it’s important to consider the size of each market. We had a look at the share of downloads from the lifestyle category that are driven from each of these countries on the App and Play Store.

Most Common Dating Apps

Download share of the Lifestyle category by country

On the App Store, the US is by far the biggest market, with 44% of downloads from the Lifestyle category coming from that country. Japan is in 2nd position, emphasizing the importance of this country in terms of App Store downloads from the Lifestyle category.

On the Play Store, the leading countries are India (30%) and Brazil (21%), with the US only appearing in 3rd position (15%). South Korea and Japan also constitute big markets that aren’t to be ignored.

Continental EU countries and Saudi Arabia, however, are quite small markets for the Lifestyle category on both the App and Play Store. This is an indicator of how mobile dating is accepted in these countries.

A quick summary of Mobile Dating

To summarize,

• Tinder is by far the world’s largest dating app, the app alone gets more than 50% share of total mobile dating downloads.
• In some markets such as Germany, Japan, and South Korea, this leadership even goes up to more than 70% of download share.
• India, France, and the United Kingdom are the most fragmented markets, with challenger apps such as Happn and Bumble representing a good portion of total download share.
• Mobile dating is a big thing in countries such as the US, Brazil, Japan, and South Korea. However, the market is much smaller in countries such as France, Germany, and Saudi Arabia.

All this data was gathered from AppTweak’s App and Market Intelligence features. Sign up to the 7-day free trial and access this huge pool of data to conduct your own market research.

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This chart shows the Most Downloaded Dating Apps by Country.

Millions of people use dating apps to overcome social barriers, busy schedules and shyness in their hunt for 'the one'.Many have found themselves empowered but others tell of despair and, in extreme cases, threats of blackmail.

Mobile dating services, also known as cell dating, cellular dating, or cell phone dating, allow individuals to chat, flirt, meet, and possibly become romantically involved by means of text messaging, mobile chatting, and the mobile web.

Dating App With Most Attractive Users

Mobile dating websites, in order to increase the opportunities for meeting, focus attention on users that share the same social network and proximity. Some companies even offer services such as homing devices to alert users when another user is within thirty feet of one another.[1] Some systems involve bluetooth technology to connect users in locations such as bars and clubs. This is known as proximity dating. These systems are actually more popular in some countries in Europe and Asia than online dating.