A recent survey by Localytics has found that 20% of apps are only used once. This may seem quite high but it is an improvement compared to the last few years with the number steadily decreasing, from 26% in 2011.
The graph shows the amount of apps used a limited number of times is decreasing, whilst apps used 11 or more times is increasing, with almost two fifths of all installed apps being used 11 or more times. This could be due to two reasons, either apps are getting better at engaging their audience so consumers keep coming back to them and/or users are more selective about what they download – only downloading apps they know they will use.
Out of the available app categories it seems that sports apps (like all the recent World Cup ones) and games are most likely to be used only once, whilst social networking and weather apps have the highest repeat usage probably due to the fact that people want to stay connected and want to know what the weather is going to be like so they can plan their day.
The last graph shows the total number of times an app was used for Android and iOS, showing that iOS apps tend to be used less than Android. This may be due to iOS owners suffering from app overload by having more apps on their devices than Android counterparts.
So it appears that if you want an app to be used repeatedly then you want to develop a weather app for Android to have the greatest chance whilst iOS sports apps are likely to have the lowest retention rate.
Source: Localytics