Record breaking year for fintech 2024

A new analysis of finance, fintech and crypto apps on the Google Play Store by app growth solutions company SplitMetrics, has found that UK neobanks have surpassed UK legacy banks in terms of app downloads for the very first time ahead of the festive season. 

As it stands, UK neobanks have an estimated 71.78m Android users, 200k ahead of UK legacy banks with 71.58m users. In 2024 so far, UK neobanks have added an estimated 18.6m users, UK legacy banks 7.5m, European neobanks 2.9m and European legacy 8.4m. 

Record breaking year for fintech 2024

The top five UK challenger bank apps in 2024 so far were Revolut (15.6m), Monzo (1.8m), Starling (463k), Virgin Money (242k) and First Direct (194k). The top five UK legacy banks that added the most users in 2024 are Lloyds (1.2m), Barclays (1.1m), Halifax (1.0m), NatWest (912k) and HSBC (792k). 

SplitMetrics’ study also found that trading apps have added almost 11m new Android users globally in 2024 so far, surpassing the sector’s record year in 2022 with 7.5m. Using data from the App Radar by SplitMetrics platform, the survey analysed the performance of the world’s top 20 trading and investment apps. Collectively, the apps have reached 86m lifetime users, with UK headquartered apps at 22.8m, European apps at 9m and the rest of the world at 54.6m.

The top five trading apps that added the most users in 2024 are Trade Republic (2.2m), eToro (2.0m), Robinhood (1.9m), Trading 212 (1.1m) and Fidelity Investments (1.0m). 

On the money management front, the UK sector added an estimated 1.1m new Android users in 2024. These apps which help users with budgeting and saving on average add 98k new users per month and have already surpassed SplitMetrics’ prediction of reaching 1.1m by the end of the year. This makes it a record year for the sector, with the two previous years both reaching just under 1m new users. 

The top five money management apps that added the most users in 2024 are Plum (357k), Moneybox (299k), Snoop (171k), HypeJar (133k) and Emma (83k).

The crypto sector has had a strong year following a challenging 2023. SplitMetrics’ previous analysis of the crypto sector earlier this year predicted that the industry would get closer to the 2022 high of 7.2m downloads. With 5.6m Android downloads in 2024 so far, the industry will enter 2025 on a high note. The top five European crypto apps that added the most users in 2024 are Luno (1.9m), Nexo (1.5m), Blockchain.com (677k), Bitpanda (425k) and Wirex (423k). 

Another indicator of a strong year for the crypto sector is the steady rise of the newcomer: crypto AI apps. These apps have already surpassed the previous year's high of 322k with 556k in 2024 so far. The top five apps that added the most users in 2024 are uTrading (188k), Pionex (141k), Stoic AI (58k), Capitalise.ai (46k) and 3Commas (42k). 

Thomas Kriebernegg, General Manager, SplitMetrics Agency, said: “Finance is one of the most competitive sectors in the mobile market, and it encompasses all kinds of types of apps; from retail banking through investment and crypto to B2B services. 

“With so many different players, it also makes it a very expensive category when it comes to user acquisition - as our report from earlier this year revealed. It is unsurprising as startups are disrupting the area, but we also have traditional banks catching up with consumers’ needs - and the latter have the user base for user acquisition.

“Our analysis of the retail banking space, however, shows that fintech is no longer a challenger but a dominant force in the industry. Will this growth continue into 2025 and beyond? Time will tell, but the work is not over for fintech apps - the hard work of retaining those hard-earned new users begins now.”