Top AVOD Apps in the U.S. for Q1 2019 by Downloads

Free ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) has become more popular in recent years as an alternative to traditional subscription offerings. The most downloaded AVOD app in the United States for Q1 2019 was Tubi with close to 3.2 million new installs, which represented a 21 percent year-over-year increase from Q1 2018 according to Sensor Tower’s Store Intelligence platform. This is the fourth in a series of excerpts from our State of Entertainment Apps report, available exclusively to our enterprise customers.

Top AVOD Apps by U.S. Downloads on the App Store and Google Play

Pluto TV, which was acquired by Viacom in January 2019, was the second most downloaded AVOD app in the U.S. for Q1 2019 with more than 2.7 million new installs. This represented 5.9x growth from Q1 2018. An increase in ad spend and the addition of new networks contributed to the app's rapid growth at the beginning of 2019. The next most downloaded AVOD app in the U.S. was Vudu, followed by The CW and Sony Crackle.

Top AVOD App Download Growth from Q1 2016 through Q1 2019

Tubi was the top AVOD app in the U.S. nearly every quarter since Q3 2016. It was the No. 5 entertainment app in Q1 2019. The CW saw downloads spike in the fourth quarter each year. The network typically released new seasons of its shows in October, driving increased interest.

Top AVOD App Download Market Share from 2016 to Q1 2019

Five AVOD apps were among the top 100 entertainment apps each year. Pluto TV replaced go90 among the top 100 in 2018. In Q1 2019, the top two AVOD apps controlled 65 percent of the market among top AVOD apps. Tubi had 35 percent of the market with 3.2 million downloads, followed by Pluto TV’s 30 percent. AVOD is currently less competitive than SVOD and is a potential area for growth. Without large players such as Netflix and Hulu to contend with, current AVOD apps should have an easier time growing market share. These apps will continue to gain customers who are priced out of the top subscription video apps.

Store Intelligence users can see revenue and download estimates for the above apps and countries in addition to historical performance metrics on the Sensor Tower platform. Our estimates include U.S. downloads for the App Store and Google Play between Jan. 1, 2016 and Mar. 31, 2019. Apple apps and Google pre-installed apps are excluded. We report unique installs only. Android estimates do not include third-party stores. Figures represent aggregate installs of all app versions, ex: Facebook and Facebook Lite.