Where these numbers come from
Google Play publishes an install bracket for every app — '50,000,000+' means the app has been installed at least fifty million times on Android devices. It is the only hard, public download number that exists in this industry: Apple publishes nothing, and the companies themselves only share numbers when they are flattering. Every figure in this article was read directly from Google Play in July 2026.
For iPhone, Apple publishes no equivalent number, so this article pairs every Play install figure with the app's US App Store rating count — a proxy, clearly labeled in the chart. Two honest caveats. Installs are not learners — an install counts even if the app was opened once and deleted. And Android is only part of the picture: an app with an iPhone-heavy audience (Pimsleur is the classic case) will look smaller here than it really is. Treat these numbers as the best available floor, not a census.
The download tiers, from half a billion on down
Duolingo stands alone: 500,000,000+ installs and 47 million Play Store ratings — more ratings than the next fifteen apps combined. Whatever you think of the owl's methods, no other education app on Earth is in its weight class.
The 100-million tier holds exactly one app, and most readers of this site have never heard of it: Cake, a Korean-built app that teaches English through short videos. It is a useful reminder that the world's biggest language-learning market is people learning English, not English speakers learning other languages.
The 50-million tier is where the familiar names cluster: Babbel (50M+, 1.1M ratings), Busuu (50M+, 1.2M), Memrise (50M+, 1.6M), and Mondly (50M+, 0.9M). Quizlet, the general-purpose flashcard tool that many language classes run on, also sits here.
The 10-million tier is crowded and interesting: Speak (the AI conversation app — 10M+ with a 4.7 rating), AnkiDroid (10M+ and a 4.8 — remarkable for volunteer-built software), ELSA Speak and EWA (English-coaching apps), HelloTalk and Tandem (language-exchange networks), Drops (vocabulary), LingoDeer (strong for Japanese, Korean and Chinese), Falou, and Rosetta Stone's classic app.
Below that, fame and downloads part ways: italki, the biggest marketplace for human tutors, shows just 5M+ installs — but every one of those users is far more committed than a casual Duolingo installer. Pimsleur, one of the oldest names in the business, shows only 1M+ on Android; its audience has always lived on iPhone and in audiobook channels. Lingopie, the learn-with-TV service, is at 500K+.
The iPhone side of the ledger
Apple publishes no download numbers at all, so the iPhone bars in the chart use the closest public proxy that exists: the number of ratings each app has collected on the US App Store. Ratings run far behind installs — roughly one rating per fifty to two hundred downloads is the industry rule of thumb — but they are real, Apple-reported numbers, and they make apps comparable with each other.
The iPhone data tells its own stories. Duolingo dominates there too (5.4 million US ratings), with Quizlet (1.1M) and Babbel (748K) next. Rosetta Stone looks far healthier on iPhone (238K ratings) than its reset Android app suggests. Pimsleur's audience is visibly iPhone-first: more US iOS ratings than it has Android ratings, despite a fraction of the installs. And Cake — the 100-million-install giant of the Android chart — barely registers on the US App Store, because its world is Android phones across Asia.
Anki is the starkest split in the whole dataset: AnkiDroid is free and beloved (10M+ installs, 4.8 stars), while the official iPhone app, AnkiMobile, costs $24.99 — it funds the project — and has just 2,311 US ratings. Same flashcards, opposite economics on each platform.
What the numbers don't tell you
Ratings expose what installs hide. HelloTalk has 10 million installs and a 3.4-star rating — the lowest of any major app in the category — which tells you the exchange-network idea is loved and the app around it is not. Compare AnkiDroid's 4.8 from 163,000 ratings: a small fraction of Duolingo's audience, but arguably the most satisfied users in the entire category.
The strangest number in the data belongs to Rosetta Stone — the most famous brand in language learning. Their original Android app ('Rosetta Stone Classic', 10M+ installs) was replaced by a brand-new app in 2024, and the new one shows just 10,000+ installs and 332 ratings. The best-known name in the industry is, by download count, currently one of its smallest apps — a lesson in what happens when you reset your store listing.
And downloads say nothing about money. Duolingo's 500 million installs are mostly free users; Babbel's 50 million include a much higher share of paying subscribers; italki's 5 million book real lessons with real tutors at real prices. If you ranked these companies by revenue per user, the chart would turn upside down.
Which of these we review — and which are next
BestLanguageApp covers apps for learning any language — very much including English, the most-learned language on Earth. That's why the biggest surprise in this data matters to us: Cake, ELSA Speak and EWA, the giant English-teaching apps, aren't in our rankings yet, and by download count they are some of the most important apps in the category. They're on our review list. The one deliberate exclusion is Quizlet, which is a general study tool rather than a language course.
From the tiers above, our review set covers Duolingo, Babbel, Busuu, Memrise, Mondly, Speak, Anki, Rosetta Stone, Pimsleur, italki and Lingopie — and our hands-on reviews are captured on a real Android phone by our automated test rig, so what you see in them is what the app actually does.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most downloaded language learning app?
Duolingo, by an enormous margin: over 500 million installs on Google Play alone and 47 million ratings — more ratings than the next fifteen language apps combined.
Do downloads mean an app is good?
No. Installs measure marketing reach and free-tier appeal, not quality. HelloTalk has 10 million installs and a 3.4-star rating; AnkiDroid has a fraction of Duolingo's installs and the category's best rating at 4.8.
Why do iPhone apps look smaller in these numbers?
Apple does not publish download counts, so all install figures come from Google Play. Apps with iPhone-heavy audiences — Pimsleur is the clearest example — are undercounted here.
