Popular Bible app YouVersion set record global engagement levels in 2024, including an increase in daily use in Central and Eastern Africa.
YouVersion, consisting of the Bible App, Bible App Lite and Bible App for Kids, is installed on more than 875 million digital devices worldwide. According to YouVersion’s end of the year press release, over 11.2 million installations on new devices occurred per month while daily Bible engagement consisted of about 14 million people daily. In 2024, the number of app installations and daily usages per month has set records.
YouVersion’s 2024 statistics show over 132 million installations among its various devotional apps; 71 million of those were for Bible App, which offers users more than 2,000 languages. The Bible App Lite, which caters to individuals who access God’s Word offline, saw over 43 million installations; and the Bible App for Kids, which provides interactive animations and fun activities that help children engage with the Bible, saw 19 million installations.
While printed Bible copy purchases rose 22% in the U.S. in 2024, YouVersion also saw an increase in engagement with the Scriptures globally.
Central Africa and Eastern Africa are experiencing the fastest growth in daily use, including the countries South Sudan (+82%), Angola (+68%), Mozambique (+55%), Guinea (+50%), Nigeria (+35%) and Algeria (+35%). Between the YouVersion apps, Burundi saw the greatest increase, up 209% throughout 2024. Latin America has seen a steady growth, as YouVersion added more partnerships and content catered toward regionally specific areas. Nicaragua saw a growth in daily use (+107%), along with Venezuela (+74%), Bolivia (+52%), Honduras (+50%), Cuba (+45%), and Argentina (+30%).
An interest has sparked in children in Africa, with a 13% daily use increase in the Bible App for Kids. Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal and Nigeria saw the highest increases in engagement.
The global engagement reminds Bobby Gruenewald, founder and CEO of YouVersion, how the global church is connected, as all believers require the same spiritual sustenance from God’s Word.
“It’s encouraging to see people throughout the YouVersion Community, in every region of the world, engage with the Bible at such high levels,” said Gruenewald in the 2024 press release. “These Bible engagement trends highlight the commonalities that can be found throughout the global Church—in the struggles we face and in our need for God.”
The top words searched globally were “love,” “peace,” “faith,” “John” and “prayer” while the Bible verse most engaged with was Philippians 4:6, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
Gruenewald believes the verse’s high engagement, consisting of sharing, bookmarking and highlighting, indicates the global church is pursuing reliance on the Lord daily.
“In many cases, our anxiety comes from holding onto worries that we aren’t meant to carry,” said Gruenewald. “To me, this verse being sought out the most this year is an illustration that our community is seeking God in prayer and choosing to trust Him to carry their burdens—and we’re seeing that supported in the data.”
Billy Graham said this about the importance of Bible reading: “We grow spiritually through the study of God’s Word. We’ll never grow in grace and in the knowledge of God until the Bible becomes part of daily life. Jesus promised that He would send the Holy Spirit to help us, but if we never read the Scriptures, if we never meditate on His Word, if we never pray and ask Him to open our minds to understand, if we never spend time dwelling on Him and what He has done for us through His sacrifice on the cross to bring salvation, we will remain infant Christians.”
