Pakistan climbed to ninth place among global markets for app downloads in 2024, with 3.56 billion total installs — a 9.2% year-on-year increase — according to data released by IT consultancy firm Data Darbar. The country also ranked 12th worldwide in total hours spent on mobile applications.
Pakistani users spent 79.1 billion hours on apps last year, marking a 14.1% annual rise that reflects the country’s deepening reliance on smartphones. Average monthly mobile data consumption grew to 8.4 GB per user, while overall broadband usage reached 13,000 petabytes across 134.8 billion mobile broadband subscriptions.
Despite the surge in usage, app development activity declined. The number of active developers fell 26% to 1,400, while Android app releases dropped 55% to 1,700. In total, 2,500 new apps were launched during the year, including 1,053 games and 784 iOS applications.
Among the most downloaded apps, TikTok led with 32.4 million installs, followed by CapCut (27.1 million), Facebook (24.3 million), and WhatsApp (22.7 million). WhatsApp Business also performed strongly, reaching 20.9 million downloads.
In the streaming category, Tamasha dominated with 10.2 million downloads, ahead of Netflix (3.7 million) and Tapmad (2.5 million). Pakistan’s app download growth of 9.2% outpaced several regional peers, including Indonesia (8.6%), the Philippines (1.2%), and Mexico (1.2%), while Vietnam and Egypt saw declines.
Globally, mobile users downloaded 136 billion apps, spent 4.2 trillion hours using them, and contributed $195 million in mobile ad spending. In-app purchases totaled $150 billion, while AI-driven apps generated 1.49 billion downloads and $1.27 billion in revenue.
