Over the past six years, TikTok climbed to the top of the world. After one of the most head-spinning rises in the social media landscape, the short-form video app grew its user count five times to 1.92 billion worldwide and hit impressive lifetime downloads.
According to data presented by OnlyAccounts.io, after one of the best quarters in the app`s history, TikTok crossed more than 4.4 billion lifetime downloads.
More than Half a Billion Downloads in H1 2023
TikTok took the world by storm only a few months after its release in 2017. Although the app was already popular and backed by a large user acquisition campaign, its downloads skyrocketed amid the COVID-19 pandemic, when more people than ever used social media platforms to connect with others.
The Statista and AppMagic data show TikTok was downloaded 653.7 million times in 2018. More than 40% of all downloads that year came from India, one of the fastest-growing TikTok markets.
A year later, the app hit 703.7 million downloads worldwide. But that was nothing compared to 2020, the best year for TikTok downloads so far. That year alone, the app was downloaded nearly 985 million times, or 40% more than a year before. Statistics show downloads dropped to 718 million in 2021 as life returned to normal. The increasing trend continued last year, which saw 861.8 million downloads.
However, the Statista and AppMagic data show that 2023 might set a new record. In the first six months of the year, TikTok was downloaded nearly half a billion times worldwide, or 32% more than in the same period a year ago. In Q2 2023 alone, the social video app was downloaded 260.8 million times, the third-highest number in its history.
Surging User Base Continues Driving Revenue Growth
Thanks to the surging number of users, marketers are willing to dig deep into their pockets to promote on TikTok. TikTok ads can open many doors to companies, especially those wanting to reach a young audience. Plus, videos posted on the app can go viral and reach millions of users practically overnight, something no other social media app can offer.
Between 2020 and 2022, TikTok`s owner ByteDance grossed $17.6bn from TikTok ads, and this figure is expected to grow by another $18bn in 2023. Thanks to an impressive 155% annual growth, TikTok ranked as the company with the fastest-growing digital ad revenue in the world and the only social media platform on the list of tech and retail giants, including Apple and Amazon.
Statista expects TikTok`s ad revenue to surge by nearly 200% in the next four years and hit almost $54bn by 2027.