Uptodown in 2019: life beyond Google Play

For yet another year, Uptodown has been solidified has one of the main alternative app stores worldwide. With 17 years behind us, we’ve become one of the most used app marketplaces in the world, as proven by the more than one billion individual users and 5 billion page visits we’ve received this year alone.

Throughout the year, the platform has been established as an alternative both for users, as well as developers and manufacturers. Proof of this is the presence of Uptodown on televisions (NPG), Media Centers (E-Box), and projectors (PuppyCube), along with its integration in software like Android emulators (NOX App Player). We’re an open platform for manufacturers and we’re constantly collaborating on more and more external projects.

The main traffic on our site has come from Brazil (10.87%), followed by Mexico (8.06%), India (7.06%), and Indonesia (6.50%). This easily demonstrates the internationalization of the platform for all sorts of markets, with special emphasis on those with growing technology, where Google doesn’t yet hold the monopoly and users demand a trustworthy service that’s adapted for lower-end hardware.

The most downloaded on Uptodown

The data presented is formulated from the 500 most downloaded apps in the Uptodown catalog which altogether add up to 3.4 billion downloads. In terms of games, the three categories with the most downloads belong the genres action, strategy, and casual, while in apps, the most in-demand sections are video downloads, general purpose, and social.

24% of the top 500 are videogames, with some of the games being the same stars we’ve seen at the top in previous years as well. That said, the ‘battle royale’ genre has taken over and only the games from Supercell and Subway Surfers from Kiloo are still in the top 10. Special mention goes to the ‘battle royale’ Free Fire and its nearly 65 million downloads, a total sensation with a massive following in Latin America.

Call of Duty Mobile breaks all the records

The mobile adaptation of the Call of Duty saga has become one of the highlights of the year. Uptodown has collaborated with Tencent (owner of TiMi, the game’s developer) to distribute Call of Duty Mobile officially. On October 1st, it beat a record during the first 24 hours after the game’s international release, racking up 430,000 downloads in this time period and reaching 17 million downloads since then.

Call of Duty Mobile: record-breaking number of downloads on Uptodown

Plus, Tencent has also released Gameloop, its own official emulator for playing its videogames on PC, including Call of Duty Mobile. This fact confirms the trend that the current Free to Play experiences are becoming more and more indistinguishable between mobile games and ones for consoles/PC. Gameloop has reached 6 million downloads on Uptodown and is continuing to grow alongside other alternatives like Nox Player, which began a collaboration back in April to integrate the official Uptodown store in its app.

The popular virtualization tool NOX joins forces with Uptodown

TOP Games 2019 (downloads this year)

1. PUBG Mobile (68,996,380)
2. Free Fire (64,464,576)
3. Clash of Clans (64,464,576)
4. PUBG Mobile Lite (64,464,576)
5. Fortnite (64,464,576)
6. Subway Surfers (21,504,363)
7. Call of Duty Mobile (16,713,105)
8. PUBG Mobile (Corea) (14,859,568)
9. Clash Royale (12,465,179)
10. Brawl Stars (11,628,377)

TOP APPS 2019 (downloads this year)

1. Snaptube (461,013,611)
2. WhatsApp (143,073,987)
3. VidMate (115,713,589)
4. TubeMate (100,354,139)
5. Snapchat (89,399,710)
6. Facebook Messenger (88,118,898)
7. TubeMate 3 (83,248,302)
8. Facebook (73,937,953)
9. Instagram (73,828,291)
10. Uptodown App Store (61,941,385)

The gap that others can’t fill

One of our main hallmarks has always been that we always focus on usability and accessibility over other product improvements. Since there’s no registration requirement to use the platform or any geographic restrictions to the catalog beyond what the individual apps impose, Uptodown is the best way to access software that’s not available otherwise. Many apps that are no longer available on Google Play (ES File Explorer), were unfairly deleted from the platform (LibreTorrent), or are distributed as independent APKs (PUBG Mobile Beta), are available on Uptodown with their authors’ approval.

Plus, the model is becoming wider in terms of the different distribution channels that currently exist. 32 of the 100 most downloaded apps on Uptodown are not available on Google Play, including games like Dragon Ball Strongest Warrior, that for now has only been released by Tencent in Asian countries and that, on Uptodown has over half a million downloads. Users are demanding more and more globalization of published content.

In addition to the possibility to download previous versions of each app, Uptodown doesn’t take down old apps even if there are more recent versions. In fact, the FIFA saga had 4.6 million downloads in 2019 of only the editions 14, 15, and 16, a clear example that there’s a high demand coming from users with lower-range devices.

User habits

Samsung is the leading manufacturer among Uptodown visitors. 40% of users access the platform using devices from this brand. This is followed by Huawei (10.7%), Xiaomi (5.37%), and Motorola (4.9%).

In terms of the version of Android most users use, there’s a huge segmentation on the platform, which is why Uptodown tries to maintain complete compatibility with leading devices. The web version has no restrictions whatsoever, while the official app requires Android 5.0 or higher to run.

1. Android 8.1.0 (14.30 %)
2. Android 9 (12.00 %)
3. Android 6.0.1 (11.27 %)
4. Android 7.0 (9.72 %)
5. Android 8.0.0 (8.20 %)

In terms of the browser used, Google Chrome prevails since it comes pre-installed on most devices. In fact, this is the main reason why the default Samsung browser is found in second place in light of the brand’s numbers.

1. Google Chrome (67.90 %)
2. Samsung Internet (8.18 %)
3. Android Webview (5.25 %)
4. Android Browser (2.81 %)
5. UC Browser (2.80 %)

Uptodown, with its 17 years of experience, is an independent alternative that attempts to democratize access to apps to make them accessible from anywhere and on any device, providing a level playing field to developers. Uptodown is currently available in 15 languages and is one of the biggest websites of Spanish origen with the most traffic in the world.