Mobile Insights

While 2020 has featured some of the biggest events in modern history —a global pandemic, an impeached U.S. President, widespread protests over severe social injustice, and a wildly volatile economy— 83% of Americans believe that who wins the presidency, according to Pew Research, matters more now than it has over the past two decades. In this report, we look at the massive spike in news consumption driven by this year’s U.S. Presidential election.

Mobile game usage in the U.S. has increased substantially during COVID-19. In a previous report, we showed that mobile game sessions surged by 21% after stay-at-home orders took hold, on weekdays no less! In other words, as people began to work and attend school from home, they also reached for their phones more often to game. In this follow-on installment, we look at what time of the day people are gaming during the week, and the results are surprising.

Coronavirus has severely impacted U.S. mobility in 2020. Foot traffic to financial centers plunged by 60%. Trips to retail stores declined by 26%. Airport visits collapsed by 75%. And now with wildfires raging across much of the Western U.S., we see a new factor impacting mobility. In this report, we examine the impact of U.S. wildfires in the West on mobility through the usage of navigation apps.

When the coronavirus pandemic hit, borders closed around the world and Americans spent months under lockdown. As Summer approached, stay-at-home orders were lifted and many hotels reopened. However, travel destinations and activities remained limited. As a result, COVID-19 crushed many travelers’ Summer plans. In this report, we look at how American summer vacation behavior dramatically shifted between 2019 and 2020 due to Coronavirus.

For the last several years, Apple has pushed the limits of premium price points with its flagship iPhone line. This pricing strategy has helped Apple maintain its premium position in the market and attract more affluent consumers. While this approach helps Apple court consumers who can further purchase subscriptions, it leaves demand from a lower income segment better served by its competitors —until now. In this report, Flurry measures how market share has shifted among leading OEMs in the U.S. since the release of the iPhone SE 2 earlier this year.

The Retail category in the United States has been among the hardest hit during COVID-19. This stands to reason as non-essential businesses were forced to close and consumers sheltered at home. In this report, we look at how in-store shopping behavior has been disrupted over the course of 2020.

Measures taken to contain Coronavirus —restricting travel, closing non-essential businesses and enforcing social distancing— have plunged the U.S. economy into a severe recession. Financial districts in major U.S. cities house a disproportionate number of corporate headquarters, which generate a significant share of economic activity in America. In this report, we show how travel to U.S. financial districts has plummeted during the economic downturn.

With many restaurants and bars closed during COVID-19, sessions in the Food and Drink app category declined by an average of 18% during the lockdown. While aggregate mobile app usage in the category has declined, we suspect that within Recipe, Takeout and Restaurant sub-categories, the story is different. In this report, to gain insights in cooking and eating habits during the pandemic, we look at the change in usage per Food & Drink sub-categories for the first 6 months of 2020.

From February 19 to March 23, driven by a combination of economic impact due to COVID-19 and an oil price war between Russia and OPEC, the U.S. stock market plummeted by more than 30%. Since then, the market has been wildly volatile. Flurry has been studying app behavior extensively during the COVID-19 pandemic and recently released a report about the top U.S. app category winners and losers. Investment-related finance apps topped the charts by a wide margin. This got us thinking about the relationship between market volatility and the use of mobile investment apps —and that’s the topic of this report.