Meditation apps fall off the cliff as normal life resumes

New Delhi, Aug 20

Meditation apps that gained millions of users during the peak of the pandemic have lost traction and combined user sessions of the top 10 meditation apps have fallen 48 per cent from their height in Q2 2020.

Several companies had pushed meditation apps as a solution to tackle stress and mental health challenges people faced early in the pandemic.

The user sessions of Calm and Headspace meditation apps were down 26.4 per cent and a whopping 60.3 per cent (year-on-year) in July, respectively, reports app research firm Apptopia.

Calm just announced it is laying off 20 per cent of its staff.

The top two meditation apps have had a steady downward trend for engagement metrics since January 2021.

All top meditation apps are experiencing downward trends in engagement with the exceptions of BetterMe: Mental Health and Breethe.

On average, the apps in this market are seeing their sessions down 30 per cent over the past 90 days.

However, Calm and Headspace were still able to increase revenue year-over-year in the second quarter.

"Part of the reason engagement is down may not be that people do not want to meditate but that they have or feel like they have less time to do so now that 'normal' life has resumed," according to the report.