In 2013, Tinder revolutionised the online dating industry with a simple system, swipe right if interested, left if not. Instead of having a matchmaker rifle through thousands of profiles to find someone unique, users could decide whether they liked someone based off a few photos.
In comparison to the services which had come before, Tinder made dating simple, but it also, as studies have found, made it less about lasting connections and relationships and more about casual hook-ups and cheesy openers.
What’s rather unique about Tinder, in the age of entrepreneurs and startups, is that it was built by Hatch Labs, a startup incubator funded by IAC, a holding company responsible for Match.com, Plenty of Fish and OK Cupid.
Instead of an outsider crushing the competition, IAC built its own cannibal, which has eaten away at the market share held by Match.com and its affiliate sites.
In the United States, Tinder has ruled the roost since its inception, but in Europe and South America, Badoo has been the frontrunner. Created by Russian entrepreneur Andrey Andreev, Badoo has had many lives, including as a social games and quiz app in Facebook Games heyday in the early 2010s.
Badoo is the most downloaded dating app in the world, with over 400 million registered users, but it has not been able to make a mark in the US. In 2014, Andreev partnered with Tinder co-founder Whitney Wolfe Herd, who left the company after tensions with executives, to found Bumble.
Download our detailed research into the online dating app market
The Dating App Report – Research, Insights and Statistics is provided with all data presented as charts and tables. So you can easily extract graphics and individual data. It provides an overview of the sector’s financials, usage, downloads, benchmarks and demographics.
Download ReportWhere Badoo failed, Bumble succeeded in drawing North American users away from Tinder. Marketed as the feminist dating app, Bumble allows women to make the first move, giving them full control of the experience.
Bumble’s growth in the past few years has also marked a change in attitudes towards dating, as people have started to turn away from the casual hook-up culture of Tinder. Hinge, another IAC-owned app, switched its entire platform in 2017 to focus on long term relationships.
That said, the culture is not devolving back to the Match.com era. Tinder and Badoo are still the leaders in monthly active users, and in emerging markets like China and South-east Asia, casual dating apps are far exceeding long-term services in popularity.
Top dating apps
| Tinder | The crowning jewel of Match Group, which owns over 45 dating apps. Tinder fundamentally changed online dating by removing the seriousness and giving users more control |
| Bumble | Tinder’s main rival in North America, designed to give women control of the experience. Bumble was started by Tinder co-founder Whitney Wolfe Herd, who left after tensions at the company |
| Badoo | Badoo started far before Tinder and Bumble as a social search, games and quiz app. After receiving a warning from Facebook in 2013, it transitioned to casual dating in the same form as Tinder |
| Hinge | Hinge may have been destined to be one of the many dating app failures, but the team reformed the app for long-term relationships and has hit the ground running in North America |
| Happn | Unlike the other apps on the list, which use location in a general sense to find matches, Happn is critically focused on matching users with people they may have seen recently |
| Grindr | While Tinder, Bumble and most other dating apps have settings for gay users, Grindr was the first app to be specifically for LGBTQ people and remains the most popular app for gay people |
| Tantan | Casual dating is not as popular in China as it is in the West, however, Tantan, known as China’s Tinder, has accumulated a sizeable community of singles, primarily college students |
| Plenty of Fish | One of the old guard, Plenty of Fish has been around since 2003. It has transitioned well into the mobile age, as one of the more popular apps used by older people |
Global Dating App Revenue
After a slump in the early 2010s, dating app revenues have increased every year since 2015, reaching $5.61 billion in 2021.
| Year | Revenue |
| 2015 | $1.36 billion |
| 2016 | $1.46 billion |
| 2017 | $1.75 billion |
| 2018 | $2.38 billion |
| 2019 | $2.97 billion |
| 2020 | $3.82 billion |
| 2021 | $5.61 billion |
Global Dating App Users
Usage has also increased, with over 323 million people worldwide using dating apps. The vast majority of matchmaking is done on mobile devices.
| Year | Users |
| 2015 | 198 million |
| 2016 | 217 million |
| 2017 | 241 million |
| 2018 | 250 million |
| 2019 | 283 million |
| 2020 | 293 million |
| 2021 | 323 million |
Global Dating App Downloads
Downloads have actually decreased in the past two years, from a peak of 287.4 million downloads in 2019.
| Year | Downloads |
| 2015 | 168 million |
| 2016 | 191 million |
| 2017 | 208 million |
| 2018 | 246 million |
| 2019 | 287.4 million |
| 2020 | 287 million |
| 2021 | 260 million |
Global Dating App Users by App
Tinder and Badoo have been in a two horse race for total users since 2015, with Tinder winning out in North America and Badoo in Europe and South America.
Want to see more data like this? Check out our dating app report
US Dating App Market Share
Tinder is the leader in the US dating app market, but Bumble has increased its market share every year since 2017. Hinge is also positioning itself as a potential leader in the near future.