As more consumers gravitate towards digital banking apps, there has been exponential growth in the popularity of these fintech platforms.

According to data acquired by Finbold, downloads for selected six European mobile-only bank apps peaked at 26.3 million in 2022 for Android and iOS operating systems. The downloads represent year-over-year (YoY) growth of 54.09% from 2021's figure of 17.06 million. In 2018, downloads stood at 5.63 million before spiking by over 150% to 14.19 million in 2019.

Among the selected apps, the United Kingdom-based challenger bank Revolut accounted for 17.24 million or a share of about 65% among the six banks. Monzo ranked a distant second with 3.59 million downloads, while N26 emerged third with 1.89 million.

With 1.56 million downloads, Starling Bank emerged fourth, while Monese occupied the fifth spot with 1.01 million downloads. Only Bunq failed to surpass the one million mark among the six most popular challenger banks, with 979,782 downloads in 2022.

Growing confidence in digital banks

The research highlighted the significance of the digital banking space in Europe and the driving factors behind the growth. According to the research report:

"The growing number of downloads highlights the rapid expansion of Europe's fintech sector, with mobile-only banks being a significant player in the industry. The growth has been accompanied by the substantial investment by venture capitalists, which has signaled confidence in the space while driving the adoption of digital banking."

With the digital banking space maturing, the future will be interesting to monitor how the industry evolves, considering that competition is heating up as established traditional banking players enter the industry.

Read the full story with statistics here.