European challenger banks significantly outperformed their legacy rivals in the race to get Android app downloads in 2022, according to data from App Radar.
Neobanks saw an 11% rise in their Google Play downloads last year, while legacy lender downloads were down 1.5%.
The UK's Atom Bank saw the biggest year-on-year rise, securing 54,000 downloads, compared to 27,000 in 2021. Viva Wallet saw its downloads rise by 54%, Tandem Bank by 53%, Monzo by 49%, and Revolut by 31%.
Of the traditional banks, Lloyds, Halifax and HSBC all saw modest growth but Barclays, Intesa Sanpaolo and Santander did not fare as well.
In terms of 2022 downloads, Revolut has increased its user base the most with 8.5 million downloads followed by Credit Agricole with 1.6 million and Monzo with 1.5 million.
Silvio Peruci, MD, App Radar, says the figures show "even though legacy banks may still have a larger general market share than neobanks, the gap is decreasing and competition is increasing".