Amazon Echo Studio
Todd Haselton | CNBC
Amazon Echoes and Fitbits were popular stocking stuffers this year, if Apple’s App Store is any indication.
Following Christmas Day, Amazon‘s Alexa app sat atop the App Store’s top free apps list, which is Apple‘s weekly roundup of the most popular apps. Alexa dethroned last week’s top app, Disney+. YouTube took second place this week, followed by Disney+.
The Fitbit app managed to take seventh. Google is in the process of acquiring the wearables company in a deal that’s under regulatory review.
The Alexa app helps customers set up their Alexa-enabled devices such as the Echo smart speaker and can be used to manage the devices. The Fitbit app is used to track and monitor the wearer’s health, including calories burned and heart rate. It can also be used to log information such as food consumed throughout the day.
It’s somewhat rare to see hardware-tied apps like Alexa and Fitbit on the top 10 list, but there’s often a spike in popular hardware after Christmas as people set their new devices up.
Beyond Alexa and Fitbit, Spotify, Google Home and Netflix also managed to make the list this week in the eighth, ninth and 10th spots respectively. Those five apps managed to bump off three game apps, a tattoo drawing app and the Amazon mobile app this week.
The Facebook app, which placed 13th this week, was notably absent from the top 10, as was Facebook Messenger, which placed 12th. Instagram was the only Facebook-owned property to make the top 10 this week.
It is at least the second week in a row that the Facebook app has failed to appear in the top 10.
Apart from Facebook, most social media apps managed to fend off the uptick in hardware-driven apps this week. YouTube rose to the second top app, up from sixth last week. Snapchat took fourth, up from eight. TikTok came in fifth, from fourth last week, and Instagram rose to sixth, up from seventh.
