Bible App Downloads Soar as American Readers Flock to Scripture
YouVersion reported that the first Sunday of the new year marked the highest number of single-day downloads ever observed by the online Bible platform.
The nonprofit entity, which is operated by Oklahoma-based multi-site megachurch Life.Church, said in comments to The Christian Post that the application had 798,000 downloads on Jan. 5.
Bobby Gruenewald, a pastor at Life.Church and a founder of YouVersion, told the outlet that over 18.2 million people used the Bible on the platform that day.
“We tend to see a seasonal uptick in Bible engagement at the beginning of the year as people start new habits and are interested in reading the Bible for the first time,” he explained.
The record set on the first Sunday of 2025 exceeded the previous record established on the first Sunday of 2024.
New Year’s Day was the third busiest day for new downloads in the history of the platform.
Gruenewald added, “This year’s increase is even higher than this same time last year, and it’s a trend we’re seeing globally.”
YouVersion saw the most significant increases in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
Ethiopia witnessed a 198 percent increase, while Egypt saw a 94 percent rise.
Those figures were followed by a 74 percent increase in Turkey, a 65 percent rise in Ghana, and a 48 percent increase in Pakistan, per the Post.
North Africa as a whole witnessed a 297 percent hike in activity while the Middle East witnessed a 166 percent increase.
Both regions are dominated by Islam.
“We’re always looking for ways to improve the app and help people do what they tell us they want to do, which is read the Bible more consistently,” Gruenewald noted.
“Because we know people are interested in creating new rhythms, we put a lot of work into designing features to help them make Bible engagement a daily practice that is sustained throughout the year,” he added.
According to the Post, the app is installed on 850 million devices and is offered in 2,100 languages.
Amid the rise in Bible reading overseas, there are also some signs of a similar revival in the United States.
Purchases of physical copies of the Bible increased 22 percent between 2023 and 2024, even as overall print book sales in the United States rose 1 percent, according to data from Circana BookScan, cited by The Wall Street Journal.
HarperCollins Christian Publishing attributed the trend to those who are reading the Word of God for the first time, as well as people who are seeking to grow their existing collections, per the Journal.
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