Already the go-to way to make purchases and enjoy digital media on mobile, the app market in Canada is forecast to continue to grow and breach expectations throughout 2025. In-app purchases flew past the $2.7 billion mark in 2022, with total revenues in apps set to continue to grow at over 6.7 percent annually over the next four years.
So, there’s a lot to be gained from having a hit app in Canada. Across the top 25 in the country, there’s a diverse mix of genres, industries, and app design. However, there are some key elements that underpin the most popular Google Play apps in Canada. Here’s a look at the top lot and what underpins their collective success.
Top Grossing Apps in Canada in 2025
The year is still young, but the top 25 highest-grossing Android apps in the Canadian market are, mostly, well-known entities that have been around for many years. To determine the top apps, we’ve turned to the app data New York market intelligence firm SimilarWeb has collected.
For the purposes of this article, the choice was made to focus on the highest-grossing apps over the downloads for free apps or premium apps. Premium apps contribute a very small amount to mobile app revenues in Canada, while free apps can very easily be downloaded and uninstalled quickly.
Top grossing apps are the ones that have continued to provide enough service to enough Canadians that, whether they’re free, a storefront, or a premium app, they’ve continued to encourage users to pay more money for them. Across these 25 apps, eight distinct categories have major players in the mix.
The most numerous among them are the app games. There are 13 in the top 25 highest grossing Google Play apps in Canada. Add in the three film and show streaming apps (including Crave) and one music streaming app (Spotify), and it’s clear that digital media apps are, by far, the most successful in Canada.
After the entertainment apps, you’ve got a couple of social media apps, two dating apps (Tinder and Bumble), the dominant shopping app (Amazon Shopping), and two utility apps (ChatGPT and Google One). Rounding out the top 25 is the gamified education app Duolingo. So, what underpins the success of these very different apps?
User Experience Above All Else
According to the research cited by Halifax firm MindSea, after a lack of use, the primary reason why people uninstall apps is due to poor user experience. Having a poor UX and limited functionality will kill an app before it even gets started. Simplicity is the key, with sections of the app needing to be intuitive, consistent, and readable.
When someone boots up an app for the first time, they need to easily be able to understand how to use it. A responsive interface that encourages swipes and taps on the screen is essential, as is making navigation to new areas straightforward from a cursory glance. It’s this that emphasizes the convenience smartphone users crave.
Perhaps the biggest reason why Tinder is atop the dating app world is its simplicity. The accessible design has you simply swipe left and right and then turn to chat if anything clicks. It makes loads of options very easy to navigate. A similar need has been addressed differently at the leading online casino Ontario users can download.
Here, there are over 2,100 games in total. So, the app puts the games into easy-to-find category pages and then emphasises a scroll and swipe approach to navigation. The utility of Google One also ticks these boxes. Making your way through the utility app stacked with options and functions is very intuitive and clear-cut.
Personalisation and Problem Solving
People will always come back to apps that serve them a purpose, be that to have some fun, perform work tasks, or do some shopping. However, everyone needs something slightly different from their experience. So, the leading apps add in personalization options or have an experience that is personalized in and of itself.
After all, some 68 percent of app users want apps that save them time and are simple to use – both of which are made possible by personalization options. For personalization in the music app, Swedish giant Spotify offers playlists, search engines, homepage recommendations, and now, its own integrated AI voice.
On the Amazon Shopping app, users get personalized promotions to their accounts and the ability to save items for later also allows for a form of personalization – as does the ability to make lists. In gamified apps like Duolingo, while its primary function is education, you can choose your path and advance at your pace, which personalizes the experience as well.
Across all of the top 25 highest-grossing Android apps in Canada this year, it’s clear to see that problem-solving enhancements through personalization and a strong UX underpin their respective popularities.
