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By Sabeeh Zunair :
Pakistan’s mobile app ecosystem continued its rapid acceleration in 2025, with total app downloads from the country reaching nearly 3.8 billion, marking a 6% year-on-year increase, according to preliminary analysis tied to the upcoming Pakistan State of Apps 2025 report compiled by Data Darbar Insights. This growth significantly outpaced the global app download growth rate of 0.8%, and propelled Pakistan up to the 8th position worldwide, overtaking Türkiye in the global app engagement rankings.
According to Data Darbar Insights, the Pakistan State of Apps 2024 report, which served as the baseline for this year’s analysis, revealed momentum across key indicators of mobile engagement. The report includes time spent in apps, monthly active users, and revenue generation from in-app purchases and advertising.
Early indicators from the 2025 draft suggest that not only are Pakistanis downloading more apps overall but that engagement depth (measured by session frequency and retention metrics) is also improving compared to prior years.
This continued acceleration reflects broader digital trends in Pakistan. These include increasing smartphone penetration, expanding internet access across urban and rural areas, and a growing base of local and global developers targeting the Pakistani user base. Industry analysts have noted that the nation’s demographic profile that includes more young, tech-savvy users, and rising consumer demand for mobile services position Pakistan as a key emerging market in the global app economy.
Data Darbar Insights, known for its comprehensive analysis of digital usage patterns, has confirmed that it is currently in the midst of finalizing the 2025 edition of the Pakistan State of Apps report.
That report will provide detailed breakdowns of categories such as gaming, social and messaging, entertainment streaming, financial and fintech tools, and productivity utilities. It will also examine factors driving mobile consumption, including regional differences, age demographics, device types, and the balance of local versus global app usage. However, some of the statistics reflecting the state of the expanding app download bubble include the following:
Meta and ByteDance continued to dominate the most downloaded apps chart, with TikTok leading with 32.4 million installs, followed by CapCut (27.1 million), Facebook (24.3 million), and WhatsApp (22.7 million). The communication landscape shifted dramatically as Telegram nearly tripled its user base from 4.4 million to 12 million downloads while VPN usage also skyrocketed following Pakistan’s ban on X (formerly Twitter) in February 2024. , with Super VPN downloads jumping 149% to 19.1 million and Secure VPN growing 158% to 7.6 million.
In e-commerce, Chinese newcomer Temu disrupted the market with 8 million downloads in its debut year, overtaking established leader Daraz (7.7 million). Digital payments remained robust, with JazzCash achieving 19.67 million monthly active transacting users, the highest ever recorded for any Pakistani app, while Easypaisa led in downloads with 12.1 million. The streaming sector showed maturation beyond pure download metrics. While Tamasha’s downloads declined 13.4% to 10.2 million, its monthly active users surged 61% to 17.1 million, and paid subscriptions exploded 367% to reach 1.35 million, demonstrating a shift from acquisition to monetization.
Globally, the total number of app downloads has continued to expand modestly, but Pakistan’s above-average growth rate highlights differentiated user behavior shaped by localized app adoption and increasing investment in digital services.
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