Pakistan secured the ninth position among global markets for app downloads in 2024, recording 3.56 billion installs — a 9.2% increase compared to the previous year, according to data released by IT consultancy firm Data Darbar. The country also ranked 12th in total hours spent on mobile applications.
Users in Pakistan spent 79.1 billion hours on apps, up 14.1% from last year, reflecting growing dependence on mobile devices. Average monthly mobile data usage rose to 8.4 gigabytes per user, while total broadband consumption reached 13,000 petabytes across 134.8 billion mobile broadband subscriptions.
However, app development activity declined during the same period. The number of active developers dropped 26% to 1,400, while Android app releases fell 55% to 1,700. Overall, 2,500 new apps were launched in 2024, including 1,053 games and 784 iOS applications.
TikTok topped the list of most downloaded apps in Pakistan with 32.4 million installs, followed by CapCut with 27.1 million, Facebook with 24.3 million, and WhatsApp with 22.7 million. WhatsApp Business also recorded 20.9 million downloads.
Among streaming platforms, Tamasha led with 10.2 million downloads, ahead of Netflix at 3.7 million and Tapmad at 2.5 million. Regionally, Pakistan’s app download growth surpassed Indonesia’s 8.6%, the Philippines’ 1.2%, and Mexico’s 1.2%, while Vietnam and Egypt posted declines of 13.6% and 1.7%, respectively.
Globally, mobile users downloaded 136 billion apps, spent 4.2 trillion hours on them, and contributed to $195 million in mobile ad spending. In-app purchases generated $150 billion, while artificial intelligence apps saw 1.49 billion downloads, bringing in $1.27 billion in revenue.
