Neobanks have been in the news a lot recently; and not always for great reasons. So, we wanted to check back in on the U.S. neobank landscape.

Neobanks have made it their mission to take on the old guard of banking by offering digital and mobile-first financial solutions for payments, money transfers, money lending, and more. In particular, apps like Revolut, N26, and Chime have found success maintaining lower barriers to entry than traditional banks, enabling them to provide banking services to individuals without a credit history, who lack stable employment, or who otherwise don’t qualify for traditional bank accounts.

However, following a period of striking growth in the neobank sector, things have gotten a little rocky. Sure, neobank start-ups continue to raise millions of dollars of funding, but questions about the security, scalability, and financial solvency of these platforms linger. Indeed, back in June, Forbes wondered if the neobank era had already come to an end.

With this in mind, we used our mobile app intelligence solutions to analyze download trends for some of the top American neobanks, including Cash App, Chime, Dave, Varo Bank, and Current.

Here’s what we found…

30-Day Overview of Cash App, Chime, Dave, Varo Bank, and Current

1.Cash App by Square, Inc.
- 30-day Android Downloads: 949,656
- 30-day iOS Downloads: 3,005,601

2. Chime – Mobile Banking by Chime
- 30-day Android Downloads: 651,851
- 30-day iOS Downloads: 227,245

3. Dave - Banking & Cash Advance by Dave, Inc
- 30-day Android Downloads: 181,496
- 30-day iOS Downloads: 123,149

4. Varo Bank: Mobile Banking by Varo Bank, N.A.
- 30-day Android Downloads: 87,491
- 30-day iOS Downloads: 36,652

5. Current: The Future of Banking by Current
- 30-day Android Downloads: 42,703
- 30-day iOS Downloads: 26,532

iOS Download Trends in 2022…

Above you’ll find daily global downloads for the iOS versions of Cash App (red), Chime (purple), Current (blue), Dave (light blue), and Varo Bank (green). These downloads are from the period between January 1st and August 23rd, 2022.

In total, these apps have been downloaded 26,520,979 times globally since the beginning of 2022.

• Cash App: 23,187,751 downloads
• Chime: 1,969,509 downloads
• Dave: 907,953 downloads
• Current: 235,771 downloads
• Varo Bank: 219,995 downloads
  

Android Download Trends in 2022…

Just like the previous chart, here you’ll find daily global downloads for the Android versions of Cash App (orange), Chime (green), Current (light purple), Dave (purple), and Varo Bank (blue). These downloads are from the period between January 1st and August 23rd, 2022.

In total, these apps have been downloaded 19,848,646 times globally since the beginning of 2022.

• Cash App: 13,899,603 downloads
• Chime: 3,222,890 downloads
• Dave: 1,134,640 downloads
• Varo Bank: 1,064,682 downloads
• Current: 526,831 downloads
  

Final Thoughts

From our perspective as an app intelligence company, it does not appear that the leading American neobanks are in much trouble. Their downloads have been strong and steady for months and have even increased in some instances. Of course, this is anything but a comprehensive analysis — this is purely an analysis of mobile app performance.

That said, while app performance may not tell the complete story, it’s a good way to gauge market demand. And what’s apparent in our research is that neobanks are popular. As such, while a crowded market may be contributing to a healthy dose of creative destruction and economic Darwinism, this is by no means an indication that neobanks are a dying breed. Indeed, we suspect neobanking will only get better.