Food for Thought: The Mobile Revolution in Fast Food and Grocery

GrubHub’s mobile app was released in 2009, and with it a new era of mobile delivery apps was born. Today that market has spun itself into what is soon expected to become a trillion dollar industry. People use apps for every stage of the food procurement process, whether it’s grocery deliveries from Instacart, coupons on the McDonald’s app, or Chipotle’s loyalty program. These apps have become essential touchpoints, pivotal to creating seamless customer experiences. State of Mobile 2025 delves into major trends within the genre, exploring how key metrics vary across brands and regions, and offering actionable insights to boost performance.

Global Trends vs. Regional Difference On a global scale, adoption of food and drink apps has remained relatively consistent. 2024 saw worldwide downloads increase 8.5% year-over-year (YoY), bringing the total to just over two billion. Sessions have seen similar growth, with a 9.5% YoY jump. However, the data tells a different story when zeroing in on specific regions. Latin America, for example, has struggled to regain its pandemic-era highs, with Argentina exhibiting declines in both downloads and sessions every year since 2021. This can be at least partly attributed to economic challenges within the country. Macroeconomic forces could also contribute to underwhelming performance in the region more broadly. 

For a more optimistic narrative, we can turn to South Korea and Japan — both of which have enjoyed surges in downloads over the past few years. The former experienced YoY declines in downloads and sessions in 2023, but successfully turned it around to boast 3.6 and 5.9% increases, respectively, in 2024. Japan has shown even more impressive stats, with downloads jumping 21% and sessions 16.5%. Both of the East Asian countries are considered leaders in automation and efficiency, which could be one factor behind their high adoption rates. 

Fast Food & Fast Casual: The Leading Subgenre

Sensor Tower’s taxonomy breaks the app stores’ Food and Drink category down into various subgenres, allowing us to take a more granular look at performance. Of the six subgenres, Fast Food and Fast Casual Restaurants is the clear frontrunner, growing 24% from 2021 to 2024 and widening its lead over other food app categories. We see interesting regional differences here as well: Japan (+85%) and Turkey (+76%) saw the most dramatic growth in downloads while Argentina, in line with larger trends in Latin America, saw a 23% drop. Globally, Restaurant Ordering and Delivery apps (like the aforementioned GrubHub) have rebounded post-pandemic and are again finding their footing in most regions.

Grocery Delivery Apps: Zepto’s Market Disruption

Q-commerce (the Q stands for “quick”) has taken off in India, and an app called Zepto has been leading the charge. The grocery delivery app’s major value proposition is the promise of ten minute deliveries, making it one of the fastest players in the space. Downloads of Zepto soared an astounding 300% between the first and second half of 2024, driven in part by the launch of its Postpaid feature, which allows users to “buy now, pay later.” Zepto even surpassed its top competitor, Blinkit, in monthly active users (MAUs) for the first time, representing a major shift in the Indian grocery delivery landscape.

How Fast Food Brands Are Using Mobile to Win Market Share

Unsurprisingly, McDonald’s dominates the downloads charts. The fast food company’s mobile app appears in the top ten apps by downloads for each of the 23 countries included in the report — except for Vietnam, where local brands outperform it. To further drive user acquisition, McDonald’s engaged in a strategic partnership with Genshin Impact, a popular action RPG. Downloads spiked 105% week-over-week (WoW) during the promo, which involved Genshin-themed meals and in-game rewards, and Sensor Tower Audience Insights show that in Q3 2024, 21% of Genshin Impact players used the McDonald's app — a rise of five percentage points from the previous quarter. 

KFC engaged in two similar promos within Japan: one with Genshin Impact and another with Uma Musume, a popular gaming franchise. The percentage of players using the KFC app increased by 6 and 9% respectively during the quarter the collaboration was in effect. Cross-industry partnerships like the ones outlined are reshaping brand engagement, and leading to measurable results for the participating businesses. 

With mobile engagement evolving across regions, understanding these shifts is key to staying ahead—download State of Mobile 2025 today to unlock the insights that will shape the next era of food and drink apps.