This table is a compilation of the Top 10 Dating Apps Worldwide in November of 2020 in order by download. This list was compiled from data Across the App Store and Google Play store, worldwide. We have examined their download numbers and purpose. Dating apps are categorized under different categories across both stores. We have put them together to see which are our most popular dating apps in November 2020.
This year has certainly been a strange one for dating. The stay at home order has meant the shut down of several places where people usually meet face to face. Consequently, there has been a huge shift in the dating landscape of 2020. Online dating apps have not, however, disappeared. Let’s take a look at the top dating apps this November and see what they are doing to stay relevant.
Categories as an App Marketing Tactic
The App Store does not have a dating app category. The dating apps in their store appear in both Lifestyle and Social Networking categories. However, the Play Store does include a category for dating apps. Yet, many of the top apps are found under Social, Social Networking, Lifestyle, and Communication. Why are the top dating apps so spread out across the categories?
Many of these apps were created prior to the addition of the dating category in the Play store and perhaps did not consider it advantageous to make the shift, but for some apps, it could also be part of a strategy to attract more users. Many dating apps, such as Tinder, include chatting and making new friends in their description. For a dating app, it is important to have a lot of active users in order to attract new users.
Hoop, for example, doesn’t even market itself as a dating app but it follows the exact structure of Tinder and is used for this purpose.
Pandemic Trends for Best Dating Apps
What approaches did the top dating apps take during this pandemic? Face to face interaction greatly decreased during the pandemic. This means that emphasis on meeting people in your area became less important. Tinder opened a feature that is usually behind a paywall from March through April that allows people to Swipe around the world.
Hoop is an app that connects with Snapchat. This top dating app allows users to meet strangers. Hoop has been called Tinder for teens as it is popular in that age group. It allows users to enter their age and gender and choose a few pictures to feature. The app has been gamified much in the same way as Tinder. Perhaps even more so by awarding gems and points for activity. This ranges from viewing videos or taking surveys or adding new people. The profiles shown to the users are of both genders and around the same age as the user.
The spike in Hoop’s downloads occurred when they also similarly removed the location feature to Tinder.
Aside from the free passport feature, allowing people to swipe all over the world in March and April, Tinder has added a video date feature. This allows users to have socially distanced dates if they so choose.
What is Tinder doing to stay so far ahead of competitors?
By checking the Tinder dating app’s ratings, it is apparent that the app is not exactly glitch-free. The online dating app holds an average rating of 1.54 internationally in the Apple store and 2.4 in the Play store. What are they doing to say so high in the rankings?
Tinder offers variety. There are the most people using the app and therefore the product is the best. When it comes to apps where the purpose is meeting people, we are actually the product. Even if it has bad reviews, it still has the most people and therefore all the more chances of finding a good match. Top dating apps can only be top dating apps if they have people to match with eachother.
One thing Tinder has been doing differently is expanding its market geographically. The other top three dating apps on the list have predominantly English Language Advertisements. Tinder, however, has put its focus in recent years into advertising in Asia, specifically Korea.
The majority of their creatives are in Korean. They are shifting their image from a more hookup-oriented app to a more serious one. While American tinder profiles tend to be images of one’s self, Korean profiles may include favorite foods, pets, and activities. The dating culture there is more centered around finding a compatible match in all respects.
Tinder launched in Korea in 2015. In 2017 they introduced K-pop band Big Bang’s Seungri as the face of one of their campaigns. However, the current push in terms of creatives for the Korean audience seems to be fairly recent. In August of 2019, all of Tinder’s ads were in English. In September of that same year, they introduced Indonesian ads into the mix. Several ads in different languages got added to their list of creatives.
Finally, in December of 2019 though Tinder had started pushing more ads in Korea, very few of them were in Korean.
In April 2020 they targeted Japan.
July was Germany, and then since August Korea has become more and more the predominant focus of their campaign.
This indicates that Tinder may be doing a sort of exploratory campaign. Alternatively, they may have found it effective to focus their campaigning in certain geographical areas at one time in order to acquire more users.
Hinge and Badoo top 2 and 3
Now, what are the second and third most popular dating apps doing? In terms of visibility, Tinder seems to dominate the west. While Badoo has the East, though you can see Tinder creeping into Asia. Hinge manages to hold its top spot due to its popularity in the United States and India. The population in India is very high. Therefore, if you can capture that market, you have a lot of potential customers.
Whereas it does not even rank in Russia, where Badoo is the much-preferred app. The best dating apps are those with the most matches to offer. It stands to reason that being the top free dating app is actually one of the bigger selling points.
So What Does it Take to be Top 10 Dating Apps in a Pandemic Year?
Basically, it requires some creativity. The demand for social interaction in 2020 is actually higher than ever. To be one of the best dating apps in 2020 you have to adapt. The apps with the most success are those that tailor themselves to the times. Top mobile dating apps keep finding new ways to expand their user base.
Do you want to do some investigating of your own? sign up for a demo with us and get all the insights on what apps are up to.
