Europe’s Largest App-Only Banks At 41.5 Million Downloads

Recently, millions of people worldwide turned to digital or app-only banks are being chosen over traditional banking, especially when the pandemic struck.

How App-Only Banks Faired Since the Pandemic

According to data presented by Trading Platforms, Revolut, N26, Monzo, Monese, and Starling, Europe’s five largest app-only banks hit a total of 41.5 million iOS and Android app downloads as of June. Revolut hit 19.2 million downloads which is more than the other top three banks combined.

The Airnow data also showed London-based Revolut, which has progressed into global expansion over a single market approach, is now the most popular European app-only bank in terms of downloads. As of June, the banking app hit a total of 19.2 million iOS and Android downloads, more than N26, Monzo, and Monese combined.

The data also showed Revolut’s total number of downloads jumped by 55% since EU countries went into lockdown. As of June 2020, the banking app has been top-rated in the UK, Ireland, Romania, and Poland, accounting for the biggest share of total downloads.

This graph shows the number of downloads worldwide of European app-only from January 2015 to March 2021, with projections to May 2022.

The Berlin-based challenger bank, N26, hit more than 3 million new downloads since the pandemic came, with the overall number rising to 7.55 million downloads as of June.  As of May 2020, both Monzo and Starling bank appears to be accelerating in popularity in the UK, reaching as high as 6.6 thousand downloads per day.

Statistics show the Monso app was downloaded 7.53 million times across Google Play and App Store, Starling follows with a total of 3.6 million downloads as of June.

Revolut and N26 have hit 28 million customers by the end of 2021, and due to multiple downloads and inactive customers, looking at the number of active customers announced by banks could be a more accurate depiction of customer growth. In February 2018, Revolut announced that it hit 1.5 million customers, which had grown up to 10 million by February 2020, the Berlin-based N26 has mirrored the incredible acceleration of new customers joining the online-only banks.

Statista projects that mainly due to entering the US market, Revolut will grow further in 2021 and hit 19.1 million customers by the end of the year. N26 is expected to have 8.6 million customers by December,  a 1.8 million increase.