Telegram became the most downloaded non-gaming app around the globe in January 2021. The messaging app was downloaded 63 million times last month (which means India saw around 15 million new Telegram users in January, going by the percentage given), 3.8 times its downloads in January 2020. Around 24% of the total downloads came from India, as per the latest data from Sensor Tower.
The sudden increase in downloads could be attributed to WhatsApp’s privacy policy controversy that sparked outrage among its users and pushed many to switch to Telegram. While TikTok came in a close second followed by Signal and Facebook, WhatsApp slid to the fifth position from its earlier third place, in January.
In its latest blog post titled ‘Top Apps Worldwide for January 2021 by Downloads’, Sensor Tower announced that Telegram trumped TikTok and Signal to become the most downloaded app globally in January this year. While the largest installs were from India at 24 percent, Indonesia came in second with 10 percent of the total downloads.
TikTok was a close second with 62 million downloads with China accounting for 17 percent of the downloads, followed by the US at 10 percent. TikTok is still banned in India after the government’s decision last year to block several Chinese apps.
