TikTok has now passed Facebook as the world’s most downloaded app

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It’s no secret that TikTok has been a global phenomenon over the past few years, with COVID-19 lockdowns helping spur huge adoption for the app.

Now, according to Nikkei, the numbers have hit a huge milestone, passing Facebook, Messenger, and WhatsApp in the number of global downloads in 2020. It just recently surpassed another milestone by becoming the first non-Facebook-owned app to hit 3 billion global downloads.

The app has had an interesting journey, going from a smaller app with a dedicated audience, to quickly capturing the attention of younger users. Then, as that hype built, more people joined on.

Then, during Donald Trump’s presidency, a new spotlight was put on the app after some kids trolled his Tulsa rally. Shortly after this, Trump declared TikTok a security risk, going as far as to try and ban the app in the US.

Well, as it always goes, that new spotlight led to even more people downloading the app and spending hours of their days watching short-form video content that was extremely targeted thanks to TikTok’s secret sauce – its algorithm.

With TikTok constantly rolling out new features – including three-minute videos – it will be interesting to see if it can maintain its place on top of the leaderboard.

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