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Facebook Messenger becomes the third non-Google app to reach 5 billion installs on the Play Store
Following Facebook and WhatsApp
With the popularity of Android, plenty of applications have managed to cross over the one billion installs threshold on the Play Store. It's a lot more selective in the five billion-plus club, which only two non-Google apps have ever succeeded in joining. You can finally bump that count up to three, as Facebook Messenger achieved a new milestone for installs just this week.
Only a handful of Android applications have reached five billion downloads, with most of them being Google's pre-installed apps. Facebook reached the landmark last year, likely thanks to its partnerships with Samsung and other OEMs, and now Facebook-owned WhatsApp has joined the elite club.
Only a handful of apps have passed 5 billion total installations on Android, mostly as a result of pre-installations by phone makers. The latest application to pass that milestone is none other than Google Drive, joining Chrome, Gmail, and Facebook in the 5 billion club.
Five billion is a big number. If you combine the populations of the top 10 most-populated countries on Earth, you get less than that number. The best-selling game console of all time, the PlayStation 2, only sold enough units to cover 3.2% of five billion. Google Play Services has now passed five billion downloads on the Play Store, becoming the first app to do so.