After its record year in 2020, Twitch adoption is still going strong in early 2021 as consumers continue turning to their mobile devices for entertainment during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Sensor Tower Store Intelligence data reveals that the popular live streaming service's mobile app reached 22 million installs last quarter, up 62 percent from the prior-year period when it saw 13.6 million.
Worldwide installs of Twitch's mobile app surged in March last year as lockdown orders rolled out around the globe. The app ended 2020 with 80.6 million installs, up 134 percent from 34.5 million for the year in 2019.
The United States remains the streaming platform's largest market, and installs there grew 91 percent Y/Y in 2020 to 17.6 million. It saw continued growth on U.S. app stores in 1Q21 when it hit 5 million downloads, up 61 percent from a little more than 3 million in 1Q20.
Twitch saw the most growth on India's app stores during 2020, climbing 588 percent Y/Y to 2.2 million from 320,000 in 2019. It experienced continued lift there in the first quarter of this year, hitting 280,000 installs, up 146 percent from 114,000 in 1Q20.
First-time installs aren't the only metric by which Twitch's mobile app is growing. The streaming service's worldwide monthly active users on mobile have continued to climb since March 2020. In March 2021, Twitch's MAUs had grown 69 percent when comparing the two periods.
The COVID-19 crisis is far from over and, moreover, consumer habits have shifted in the last year. Sensor Tower's report on the State of Streaming Apps will be out later this month with more insights into the live video landscape on mobile, including emerging and persisting trends as well as how the continuing pandemic is affecting both publishers and the behavior of consumers who use their apps.