Users Are Having a Falling Out with Dating Apps, but Those Still Committed are Willing to Spend

It's Valentine's Day and when it comes to matchmaking, leading publishers Bumble, Match Group, and Meet Group continued to lead the charts for overall installs in 2022, according to our latest report. However, a jealous new rival entered the scene in 2021, Wizz by VLB, reaching the No. 10 most installed Dating and Social Discovery app before experiencing a surge in installs in late 2022, placing it at number 4 for that year, just below Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge. 

While the Dating and Social Discovery category saw significant growth in installs during the early COVID period in the first two quarters of 2020, newer users don’t seem to reciprocate their affection. Download levels began to return to those seen in 2019 in 2021, and surprisingly, have continued to drop even further in 2022, marking the lowest number of installs in the past four years. In spite of this decline, revenues have grown, reaching a peak in Q1 2022 of $374 million in gross revenue, and an overall increase of 5 percent year over year in 2022, offering a remarkably bright silver lining to this trend. 

Social discovery apps, which primarily focus on allowing users to make new friends, are proving to be a dynamic area of the mobile app market, with a majority of the top ten most installed apps changing positions from 2021 to 2022. As was the case with the broader category of Dating and Social Discovery, Wizz has surged to the top, capitalizing on gains made in 2021, where it arrived in 5th place, and in 2022 landing at the number one position, with a lead of over 45 percent more installs than the second place app, MeetMe. 

Sensor Tower empowers brands with accurate, actionable, and innovative intelligence to succeed in the rapidly evolving digital economy. Download the complete State of Dating  and Social Discovery Apps report below for more insights on apps like Wizz, Tinder, and Grindr.