Big Changes by Facebook Revealed in This Week's List of Fastest-Growing Apps by MAU
Usually this weekly list of fast-gaining apps by monthly active users is reserved for new apps. However, a quick scan over the list below will present regular readers with an unusual sight: over a dozen older apps appear to have gained millions of new users, with an incredible 15 million new MAU being taken in by the top app on the list.
We’re still investigating these stats. However, we’ve so far found that there appear to have been two changes on Facebook’s end. The first, which you can see in the various quiz apps below, is that Facebook has started counting user-generated quizzes toward the total of their parent apps. So, for the first time, we can see how many MAU quiz apps like Quiz Planet! and Quiz Monster truly attract.
The second change from Facebook appears to be a bug fix that previously affected reporting on apps. We found one of these issues earlier this month, when we reported that Facebook for Android showed only 67 MAU but in actuality had several million. You can see that app below, along with others like Status Shuffle, Twitter, and Xbox LIVE.
Here’s the AppData list:
| Name | MAU | Gain | Gain, % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Quiz Planet! | 18,759,590 | +15,281,967 | +439.44 |
| 2. | Quiz Monster | 14,642,051 | +9,218,591 | +169.98 |
| 3. | Friend Interview | 13,146,031 | +7,622,791 | +138.01 |
| 4. | Status Shuffle | 11,565,460 | +6,722,142 | +138.79 |
| 5. | 6,672,847 | +6,200,579 | +1,312.94 | |
| 6. | Social Interview | 11,385,171 | +6,000,118 | +111.42 |
| 7. | FrontierVille | 6,284,067 | +5,452,890 | +656.04 |
| 8. | Entrevista tus Amigos | 10,045,319 | +5,053,985 | +101.26 |
| 9. | Facebook for Android | 4,686,756 | +4,686,691 | +7,210,293.85 |
| 10. | Quiz Creator | 4,813,376 | +4,524,233 | +1,564.70 |
| 11. | Gift Creator | 4,591,694 | +4,485,404 | +4,219.97 |
| 12. | Create your Quiz | 2,624,556 | +2,621,853 | +96,997.89 |
| 13. | Frases Diarias | 9,529,671 | +2,020,754 | +26.91 |
| 14. | BandPage by RootMusic | 1,706,153 | +1,700,021 | +27,723.76 |
| 15. | Hello City | 4,402,158 | +1,624,120 | +58.46 |
| 16. | Friends Emotions [Emociones de Amigos] | 3,877,346 | +1,549,609 | +66.57 |
| 17. | Xbox LIVE | 1,471,597 | +1,429,750 | +3,416.61 |
| 18. | LivingSocial | 5,254,307 | +1,418,012 | +36.96 |
| 19. | Flag Balls World Cup 2010 | 1,845,479 | +1,399,677 | +313.97 |
| 20. | BuddyPoke | 4,634,653 | +1,202,328 | +35.03 |
Four of the apps on the list, from Quiz Planet! to Create your Quiz, are affected by the quiz creator changes. Together, they’ve accumulated 31.6 million “new” MAU, which were previously scattered across countless quiz apps that had been created by users. We’ll be writing more about this group shortly.
The other group of apps, those that appear to have had a reporting bug fixed, is perhaps more interesting — especially those from large media companies. For instance, Twitter seems to have actually had some 6.2 million more MAU on Facebook than previously realized. The new numbers mean the micro-messaging app is actually a fairly significant force on Facebook. Below is its chart; the day you see the hockey-stick growth is June 15th, the same day that most of the apps began reporting revised numbers.
Facebook for Android we wrote about more extensively when we found its reporting errors in early June, although notably Facebook told us at the time that the app had six million MAU, while it’s now reporting just 4.7 million. We haven’t heard back from Facebook yet about the changes, though, so we have no explanation for the discrepancy yet.
Take a look over the rest of the list; almost all of the apps were affected by the reporting changes. There are some interesting gainers, like BandPage by RootMusic, which creates a custom page for bands that rivals what’s available on MySpace. Also take note of Xbox LIVE, which suggests that Microsoft’s social media strategy for the gaming platform is finding at least a little bit of success.
Of course, our list above stops at 20 entries. For much more, just head over to AppData’s MAU growth list, where there are more interesting appearances, including Tumblr, MOTOBLUR, Foursquare and the PlayStation®Network app.
