Facebook and Google lead the list of top apps in 2016

With more than 146 million average unique users per month, and 14 percent growth over last year, the undisputed leader, Facebook is numero uno on the list of the year’s top apps released by Nielsen.

Facebook-owned Instagram, Messenger and YouTube also scored several spots on the top 10 chart. Instagram witnessed highest year-over-year growth, up 36 percent from 2015. Followed by YouTube with over 113 monthly unique users, Messenger came in second place this year, with over 129 million average unique monthly users.

On the other hand, Google secured the maximum points on the year-end chart with its search, maps, email apps. Google’s apps YouTube (#3), Google Maps (#4), Google Search (#5), Google Play (#6) and Gmail (#7) were among those people used the most throughout the year.

The report also noted the growth in smartphone penetration in the U.S. In 2016, 88 percent of mobile subscribers now use a smartphone, up from 86 percent at the beginning of the year. More than 53 percent are on Android, with 45 percent on iOS, 2 percent on Windows Phone, and only one percent on Blackberry.

Notably, Nielsen also noted that e-commerce sites broke records during this holiday shopping season, and Amazon accounted for a huge proportion of those numbers – as much as 37 percent, according to recent reports. But people are clearly doing more mobile shopping throughout the year, Nielsen found, as Amazon’s mobile app saw a 43 percent increase in terms of monthly average unique versus 2015.

Notably, Amazon’s mobile app also saw a 43 percent increase in terms of monthly average unique versus 2015.