Sonos’s Bad Beat

Key Takeaways:

• The May’24 launch of Sonos’s redesigned app led to a drop in global MAUs, down 4% HoH in 2H24. Though Sonos’s downloads marginally increased in 2H24, up 5% HoH, it grew at a much slower pace as cohort downloads increased 35% HoH amidst the crucial holiday period for the sector 

• Sonos’s customers flocked to review the app after the redesign was launched, as an outpouring of response drove a 900% increase in app reviews in the 8 months since it was launched vs the prior 8 months, accentuated by the surge of 1-star reviews for the Sonos app, which increased a whopping 14x during the same period

  • From May’24-Jan’25 MTD, over 80% of the reviews for the Sonos app across the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store were 1-star reviews, up from ~55% during the previous 8 months, highlighting how unfavorably consumers viewed the redesign

• Despite the challenging year for Sonos, it kept its US ad spend on par with the previous year, though a material portion of its spend in 2024 was concentrated on its headphone launch, accounting for 45% of spend in 2024, while less than <1% of the company’s US ad spend in 2024 addressed the frustrations of the company’s app with its customers 

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