According to Elon Musk, Starlink is now active on all continents, including Antarctica. So, we decided to take a look at the app’s global performance.
A few months ago, we covered the arrival of Starlink terminals in Ukraine. As conflict broke out there was concern that communications channels would soon be severed, further isolating the country in its hour of need. So, Elon Musk contributed to the Ukrainian defense effort by activating the Starlink service and providing the country with additional terminals.
Well, yesterday, Elon Musk took to Twitter to announce that Starlink is now active on all continents, including Antarctica. Moreover, he noted that the company was seeking an exemption to sanctions to provide Iran with high-speed, low-latency broadband Internet.
In light of these announcements, we wanted to check back in on the Starlink app. Here’s what we found (click the links to jump to the relevant sections):
- Starlink Nearing 2,000,000 Global Downloads in 2022
- Starlink Ranks in 12 Google Play Top Charts and 9 Apple App Store Top Charts
- Starlink Monthly Active Users (MAU) Up 80% in 2022
Starlink Nearing 2,000,000 Global Downloads in 2022
This chart depicts daily global downloads for the iOS (blue) and Android (red) versions of Starlink between January 1st, 2022 and September 20th, 2022.
These apps have combined for 1,889,130 downloads in 2022. While the vast majority of these came in the period between February 19th and April 9th (when war broke out in Ukraine), downloads have remained noticeably higher than before the war. This indicates that Starlink usage is growing at a steady pace.
Indeed, prior to February, Starlink was averaging between 1,000 and 2,000 downloads per day. Currently, it’s averaging between 3,000 and 5,000 daily downloads.
Starlink Ranks in 12 Google Play Top Charts and 9 Apple App Store Top Charts
Specifically, the Android version of Starlink ranks in the category-specific top charts in Australia, Canada, Chile, China, the Dominican Republic, Estonia, Ireland, Lithuania, Malta, New Zealand, Ukraine, and the United States. The iOS version, meanwhile, ranks in the category-specific top charts in Australia, Canada, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Estonia, Mexico, New Zealand, Ukraine, and the United States.
That said, Starlink is especially popular in Canada, New Zealand, and Ukraine, where the app has generated 116,633, 15,203, and 564,548 downloads respectively thus far in 2022.
Starlink Monthly Active Users (MAU) Up 80% in 2022
Finally, let’s look at Monthly Active Users (MAUs) for the Android version of Starlink.
At the beginning of 2022, the app registered approximately 19,600 MAUs. Following the arrival of Starlink in Ukraine, this number jumped to 43,362 for the month of March.
As of August 2022, Starlink had 35,480 MAUs. This is down a tick from March, but still 80% more than in January.
Final Thoughts
Starlink is technically a subsidiary of SpaceX, but it’s by no means a gimmicky side-project. It’s quickly developing into a uniquely valuable connectivity solution, offering high-speed broadband Internet to people living in rural areas and other parts of the world that are typically underserved by traditional broadband providers. Moreover, as the Ukraine deployment indicates, it’s also a highly robust and decentralized solution.
All of this is to say, keep an eye on this space. Starlink has a bright, bright future.
