French social media app ‘BeReal’ has surged in recent months. Billed as the ‘anti-Instagram,’ the app has generated 50M downloads thus far in 2022.

BeReal has been kicking around app markets since 2020, but it wasn’t until 2022 that it emerged from relative obscurity. A viral moment in early July resulted in a barrage of laudatory articles promoting BeReal as the antidote to doom scrolling, the “cool-kid flex on TikTok and Instagram,” and the “only good social media app.” That’s a lot of pressure for an app that, just a few months ago, had barely more than three million global downloads.

So, what exactly makes BeReal different? In a word, authenticity. The app’s defining feature is a daily notification that encourages users to share a photo of themselves and their immediate surroundings in a randomly selected two-minute window every day — no editing allowed.

In many ways, BeReal is an iconoclast in the social media landscape. It’s a revolt against high-octane content curation, face filters, and the TikTok-ification of every platform this side of Instagram. In a characteristic moment of jest, BeReal’s app store description declares that it won’t help anyone become an influencer.

So, in light of BeReal’s ongoing success, we wanted to see where it currently stands in the global app market. Here’s what we found (click the links to jump to the relevant sections):

• BeReal Has Surpassed 50,000,000 Global Downloads in 2022
• BeReal Ranks in 109 Google Play Top Charts and 106 Apple App Store Top Charts
• BeReal Monthly Active Users (MAU) Are Up 633% in 2022
  

BeReal Has Surpassed 50,000,000 Global Downloads in 2022

This chart depicts daily global downloads for the iOS (red) and Android (purple) versions of BeReal between January 1st, 2022 and October 5th, 2022.

These apps have combined for 51,106,908 downloads in 2022. However, prior to mid-April, BeReal wasn’t generating a whole lot of attention; and indeed, it wasn’t until late June that things really took off.

Consider the following. BeReal was averaging somewhere in the neighborhood of 15,000 - 20,000 daily downloads in January 2022. By April, the app was tallying between 160,000 and 200,000. Today, BeReal notches roughly 500,000 daily downloads, with an all time record of 655,044 downloads on September 18th, 2022.

Not too shabby.

BeReal Ranks in 109 Google Play Top Charts and 106 Apple App Store Top Charts

BeReal’s success is evident in global top chart rankings. The Android version currently sits among the top ‘Social’ apps in 109 countries, while the iOS version ranks among the top ‘Social Networking’ apps in 106 countries.

Things have gone especially well in the United States, where BeReal has been downloaded 15,856,991 times since January 1st. In the chart above, you’ll find ranking trends for the iOS (red) and Android (purple) versions of BeReal in the United States since the beginning of 2022.

As you can see, both versions of the app had inauspicious starts to the year. The iOS version kicked off 2022 as the 132nd ranked ‘Social Networking’ app in the U.S., while the Android version sat at 437th among all ‘Social’ apps.

However, both apps currently place in the top 10 in their respective categories. As of October 5th, 2022, the iOS version is ranked 1st and the Android version is ranked 6th.

BeReal Monthly Active Users (MAU) Are Up 633% in 2022

Finally, let’s look at Monthly Active Users (MAUs) for the Android version of BeReal.

At the beginning of 2022, the app registered approximately 43,899 MAUs. By May, this number rocketed up to 137,007.

By August 2022, BeReal notched some 321,787 MAUs, a 633% improvement over January.

Final Thoughts

Whether BeReal ever truly competes with the likes of Instagram and TikTok remains to be seen. The French social media app’s 53,193,320 downloads since 2020 are impressive by any standard, but they’re still a world away from the 1+ billion downloads drummed up by their American and Chinese counterparts. For the sake of comparison, Instagram was downloaded 58,833,564 in September 2022 alone.

In any event, BeReal shows no signs of slowing down. Their unique approach to social media is continuing to win over millions of users across the globe. While it’s unlikely they’ll remake the mobile landscape in their own image the way TikTok and Instagram have, they’ve proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that there’s a market for their flavor of digital dissent.