The State of Dating Apps 2021 — an Analysis of U.S

Home , Badoo, Grindr, Hinge (app), Match Group, Tagged (website)

The State of Dating Apps: Table of Contents The State of Dating Apps report offers analysis on the latest trends for the category:

4. Market Overview - United States: Dating app revenue and download trends in the U.S. and top apps

14. Trends during COVID-19 A look at how COVID-19 altered the dating landscape

23. Traditional Dating Trends Trends among traditional dating apps entering 2021

30. Dating Advertising Advertising trends among top dating apps, including a look at Bumble’s creatives

U.S. Dating Downloads Grow Despite COVID-19 Quarterly U.S. downloads on the top 25 dating apps on the App Store and Google Play

App Store Google Play U.S. dating app downloads reached a new high 20M in Q1 2020. Most of this success came from a particularly strong January prior to the spread of COVID-19 in the U.S. Despite COVID-19, +3% +2% dating app adoption remained steady throughout the rest of 2020. Downloads grew 3 15M +11% percent Y/Y in Q4, and it appears that mobile 6.7M 5.9M 5.6M 5.8M 5.1M dating in the U.S. will continue to thrive even 6.3M 5.7M 6.3M 5.8M 6.1M while social distancing measures are in place.

6.5M 6.3M 6.1M 10M 6.5M 6.3M 6.3M App Store install growth outpaced that of Google Play, perhaps suggesting that dating apps are going after the comparatively higher spending consumers on Apple’s platform. While the App Store accounted for roughly 67 5M 10.0M 10.4M 10.4M 10.1M 10.5M 9.1M 9.1M 9.5M 9.0M 9.5M percent of U.S. downloads in Q4 2020, it 7.6M 7.8M 7.5M 7.1M 6.8M 6.5M generated nearly 87 percent of the revenue.

Q1 2017 Q2 2017 Q3 2017 Q4 2017 Q1 2018 Q2 2018 Q3 2018 Q4 2018 Q1 2019 Q2 2019 Q3 2019 Q4 2019 Q1 2020 Q2 2020 Q3 2020 Q4 2020

Match Group Also Tops the U.S. Download Rankings

Most installed dating apps on the U.S. App Store and Google Play by year Match Group app

2017 2018 2019 2020

Tinder Tinder Tinder - Tinder 1 Match Group 1 Match Group - 1 Match Group 1 Match Group -

Plenty of Fish Plenty of Fish - Bumble +1 Bumble 2 Match Group 2 Match Group 2 MagicLab 2 MagicLab -

Bumble Bumble - Plenty of Fish -1 Plenty of Fish 3 MagicLab 3 MagicLab 3 Match Group 3 Match Group -

Zoosk Zoosk - Hily +6 Hinge 4 Spark Network 4 Spark Network 4 Hily 4 Match Group +1

Badoo Badoo - Hinge +4 Hily -1 5 MagicLab 5 MagicLab 5 Match Group 5 Hily

Match Match - Badoo -1 Badoo - 6 Match Group 6 Match Group 6 MagicLab 6 MagicLab

OkCupid OkCupid - Match -1 BLK NEW 7 Match Group 7 Match Group 7 Match Group 7 Match Group

Grindr Grindr - Zoosk -4 Grindr +3 8 Grindr 8 Grindr 8 Spark Network 8 Grindr

Anonymous Chat Rooms Hinge* NEW OkCupid -2 Match -2 9 AntiChat 9 Match Group 9 Match Group 9 Match Group

Clover Hily NEW Clover +1 Taimi NEW 10 Clover 10 Hily 10 Clover 10 Social Impact

*Note: Match Group acquired a 51 percent stake in Hinge in 2018, before fully acquiring the dating app in early 2019.

Market Overview 4 Trends During COVID-19 Quarterly average ageandU.S. downloads for thetop 25datingapps Younger Users Turned to Dating Apps AmidCOVID-19 Average Age 26 27 28 29 30 31

Q1 2018 29.6

Q2 2018 29.5

Q3 2018 29.3

Q4 2018 29.4

Q1 2019 29.2 Average Age

Q2 2019 28.7

Q3 2019 28.1 Downloads

Q4 2019 28.5

Q1 2020 27.2

Q2 2020 27.2

Q3 2020 27.3 5

Q4 2020 28.2 10M 15M 20M 25M 5M 0

Downloads among thesametop 25apps,and isAppStore only. each quarter across theAppStore andGooglePlay. Average age is Population ofappsincludesthetop 25dating appsby U.S. downloads Note Regarding Download andAge Estimates such aslive streaming. are popularamong thisyounger audience, Some top apps started to addfeatures that increased demandamongayounger userbase. School closures andsocialdistancing orders before jumpingback upto 28.2inQ4. was around 27.2thefirst three quarter of2020 2020. Theaverage userage amongthetop apps pandemic accelerated thistrend inearly declined inrecent years, theCOVID-19 While theaverage age for dating apps steadily © 2021SensorTower Inc.-AllRights Reserved © 2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved

Apps for Making Friends Have Seen a Surge in Adoption Quarterly U.S. downloads for top apps for finding friends and meeting new people

Meet Group has found steady success with a handful of apps including MeetMe, Tagged, Yubo MeetMe Tagged Wink Skout Wizz and Skout. These apps contain many of the 2.0M same features included in top dating apps, but are marketed primarily for the purpose of chatting and meeting new people.

1.5M With a sudden surge in demand for social

Yubo apps during stay-at-home orders amid (+38% Y/Y in 4Q20) COVID-19, some other apps were able to capitalize on the influx of younger users, 1.0M including Yuba, Wink, and Wizz. These apps MeetMe (-3%) promoted themselves as social apps for making new friends. Interestingly, Meet Group’s top apps did not see much of a boost in 2020. Tagged (+5%) 500K Wink (+105%) Skout (-9%) Wizz (+1,900%)

Q1 2017 Q2 2017 Q3 2017 Q4 2017 Q1 2018 Q2 2018 Q3 2018 Q4 2018 Q1 2019 Q2 2019 Q3 2019 Q4 2019 Q1 2020 Q2 2020 Q3 2020 Q4 2020

Bumble was a Top Advertiser Across Popular Ad Networks Top dating apps by U.S. share of voice for iPhone and iPad

TikTok Facebook Snapchat Apple Search Ads

Bumble Bumble Hily Bumble 1 MagicLab 1 MagicLab 1 Hily 1 MagicLab

Tinder Hinge Bumble Ashley Madison 2 Match Group 2 Match Group 2 MagicLab 2 Ruby Life

Hinge Clover Clover Tinder 3 Match Group 3 Clover 3 Clover 3 Match Group

Clover Plenty of Fish Tinder Taimi 4 Clover 4 Match Group 4 Match Group 4 Social Impact

Badoo BLK Badoo HUD 5 MagicLab 5 Match Group 5 MagicLab 5 HUD Studio

Creative Trends: Bumble

1 Pre-Pandemic 2 Early Pandemic 3 Late 2020

Bumble’s advertising early 2020 highlighted its Bumble was one of the few top dating apps to By late 2020, Bumble shifted away from its virtual differentiating features. It frequently called out adjust its advertising to address the pandemic. dating advertising. A few of its top creatives still how female-identified users message first, and Many (though not all) of its top creatives began referenced dating from home, but many featured many of its ads promote how it is a great dating to mention dating from home and highlighted its more traditional ads with success stories from option for them in particular. video chatting option for virtual dates. the app or demonstrations of its latest features.

TikTok Snapchat MoPub TikTok TikTok Facebook

Dating Advertising 8 The State of Dating Apps: There’s More!

The full State of Dating Apps report is available exclusively to Sensor Tower Enterprise customers. Request the full report from our sales team ([email protected]):

Additional Insights in the Full State of Dating Apps Report (28 more pages) • Revenue Trends for Top Apps in the U.S. • A Look at How Demographic Shifts Following COVID-19 Altered the Dating App Landscape • Trends in Traditional Dating Apps, Including the Recent Success of Hinge • App Store Optimization and Advertising Strategies Amidst COVID-19 • And more!

Request the Full Dating Report

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