The retail investment boom this week has taken over Apple and Google’s app stores.
It’s hard to stress how unusual it is. In normal times, app store rankings are dominated by social and entertainment apps: think YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Disney +, and so on.
First, check out the rankings of the App Store for Android (left) and iPhone (right) from Friday morning in the US:
Investment programs Robinhood, WeBull, Cash App
Google Play
Now for a quick breakdown of how app store rankings work. Consider the rankings as a snapshot. This reflects the momentum in downloads of a given app, not necessarily the total number of downloads. For example, apps like Amazon Alexa and Fitbit usually see big jumps at Christmas when people activate their new Echo speakers and fitness trackers.
The jump in the rankings for financial applications represents a huge interest among the general population in retail investments through programs such as Robinhood or Webull. Reddit’s leap is due to the popularity of the Wall Street Bets forum, where the GameStop boom began. Coinbase is a popular app for buying cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
You get the idea.
This is one of the best signs we have ever had that the retail tree has become the mainstream.
And if you want to see how fast these programs jumped in the rankings, check out this data from Sensor Tower, a firm that monitors the download of applications: