Apple predicted self-care as one of its top four breakout trends for 2017 and since then we’ve witnessed the mainstreaming of wellness lead to a boom in mindfulness and meditation apps. COVID-19 added fueled this trend with companies stepping up marketing and partnerships. Many of the top ten apps grew month-over-month installs with free downloads while Calm took a different tack upping their partnership game.

“Studies show that meditation and mind-body exercises tend to promote processes such as self-awareness, self-efficacy, self-care, and emotion regulation, which can, in turn, have a profound effect on supporting the engagement of heart-healthy behaviors like a smart diet and physical activity,” says Dr. Gloria Yeh, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

• During the week of March 29, mindfulness apps reached 750,000 downloads, representing a 25% increase from the weekly average during January and February, and Android users engaged with these apps 85% more than usual.
• According to a new report from app store intelligence firm Sensor Tower, the world’s 10 largest English-language mental wellness apps in April saw a combined 2 million more downloads during the month of April 2020 compared with January, reaching close to 10 million total downloads for the month.
• April 2020’s top performers by downloads according to a new report from app store intelligence firm Sensor Tower were dominated by meditation apps, 1) Calm 3.9 million downloads, 2) Headspace 1.5 million installs and 3) Meditopia with 1.4 million.
• Calm saw more than 911,000 more downloads in April compared with January, a rise of nearly 31%.
• Relax: Master Your Destiny, grew 218% since the start of the year with 391,000 downloads in April.
• Headspace has seen users completing calming meditations 13x more often than in the previous month, and meditations targeted toward managing anxiety have climbed.
• Headspace raised a total of $93 million in its Series C funding round in February and Calm raised an $88 million Series B round that valued the company at over $1 billion in 2019.