Back in October, we covered the rise of Gas, a compliments-based social media app for teens. In particular, we noted that the app surpassed 2.5 million downloads just two months after its August release.

Well, Gas was officially acquired by Discord a couple weeks back. So, out of curiosity, we took a look at how the app has performed since we first covered it at the tail-end of last year.

Here’s what we found (click the links to jump to the relevant sections):

• Daily Downloads for Gas Are Down 98% Since November Peak
• Gas Is Struggling in the App Store Top Charts
  

Daily Downloads for Gas Are Down 98% Since November Peak

The chart above depicts daily U.S. downloads for Gas — which remains an iOS-only app — in the period between August 26th, 2022 and January 29th, 2023.

In total, the app has been downloaded 6,756,369 times since its launch in late August. However, the bulk of these downloads occurred between October and November, with a massive drop off occurring, oddly enough, around Thanksgiving (November 24th).

Recently, the app has been generating roughly 2,000 downloads per day. That’s a decline of roughly 98% when compared to the app’s peak of 124,558 downloads on November 10th.

Gas Is Struggling in the App Store Top Charts

Unfortunately, Gas’s struggles don’t end there. Due largely to the app’s dramatic decrease in daily downloads, it no longer ranks highly in category-specific top charts.

Indeed, in the graph above, you’ll find Gas’s daily U.S. rankings in the Apple App Store’s ‘Lifestyle’ genre. The chart begins in August, when Gas was first released, and ends on January 30th.

Interestingly, the app first debuted in the App Store’s U.S. top charts in mid-October, but back then it was categorized as a ‘Social Networking’ app. It performed well, too, briefly holding the top spot over contenders like Facebook and TikTok.

However, on December 3rd, the developers reclassified Gas as a ‘Lifestyle’ app:

As the chart at the beginning of this section indicates, Gas quickly ascended the genre’s top charts and debuted in the top three. As downloads waned, the app began its slow and steady decline. Today it ranks 82nd among all ‘Lifestyle’ apps.

Final Thoughts

The Gas moment may have passed. While the Discord acquisition may be able to reignite it, things as they currently stand aren’t exactly encouraging. Downloads have ground to a halt and the app’s rankings have suffered mightily for it.

Still, if Gas’s new owners are looking for a silver lining — at least one that doesn’t entail stripping the app for parts — it’s possible that usage is high enough to obviate the need for viral growth. If that’s the case, Discord probably has some runway to figure out what to do with their new toy.