Duolingo: quarterly global MAUs 2020-2024

During the third quarter of 2024, Duolingo had approximately 113 million monthly active users (MAUs) of the app. This represented an increase of around 10 percent compared to the previous quarter. Between the third quarter of 2020 and the middle of 2024, Duolingo's monthly active users experienced a positive growth trend.

How does Duolingo make money?

Duolingo’s revenue witnessed an upward trend between 2020 and 2024, reaching a value of more than 178 million U.S. dollars during the second quarter of 2024. Duolingo Inc. generates revenue through its multiple services including app subscriptions, advertising, Duolingo English test, and in-app purchases. Subscriptions contributed the largest share to Duolingo’s revenue stream as the company generated over 400 million U.S. dollars solely from user subscriptions in 2023. In contrast, in-app purchases such as those generated by the selling of “gems”, Duolingo virtual currency that allow users to buy exclusive features and hints, generated around 35 million U.S. dollars in the last examined year. While the app attracted language learners from all markets, the United States was the country with the largest share of revenue, amounting to almost 240 million U.S. dollars in 2023. 

Duolingo leads the language learning apps market

Language learning app publishers offer apps with a variety of interactive features for users. In 2024, Duolingo led the language learning apps market both in terms of number of downloads and yearly revenues. In July 2024, the popular language learning app recorded more than 14 million monthly downloads worldwide. Lingutown and Buddy.ai followed with 1.98 and 1.63 million monthly downloads, respectively. During the examined period, Duolingo was the highest-grossing language learning app and generated a revenue of more than 33 million U.S. dollars. Babbel ranked second with a revenue of 5.4 million U.S. dollars.

What primarily motivates users to access language learning platforms? In 2023, the leading reason for using language learning apps in the United States was the desire to learn, as almost one-quarter of respondents reported they engaged with apps in this category out of curiosity. To have fluency in another language and travelling followed, 23 and 17 percent of respondents reporting to use language learning apps for these reasons, respectively.