Bible app tops 1 billion installs as founder points to a global move of God

The founder of the world’s most-used Bible app says reaching 1 billion installs isn’t just a ministry milestone – it points to a sweeping move of God around the world. 

YouVersion this month passed that milestone, topping 1 billion installs worldwide since it launched as a humble small-scale ministry by Oklahoma’s Life.Church in 2008. It was the infancy of the smartphone and app era, when BlackBerrys were still everywhere and iPhones were just emerging. 

The app, which is used in every country in the world, has seen steady growth in 2025, with global installs up 12% and daily usage climbing even more at 18%. Peak daily usage of the app came not on Easter or even on New Year’s Day, but instead on two Sundays this month not tied to any holiday. 

Bobby Gruenewald, founder and CEO of YouVersion, said the milestone is a “celebration of the Bible itself” and “what happens when people around the world work together to get it into the hands and hearts of more people.” 

YouVersion held a celebration Monday night marking the milestone, featuring Christian artists and leaders Lauren Daigle, CeCe Winans, Phil Wickham and Christine Caine. That celebration was initially planned for 2027 before being bumped up to 2026 as YouVersion installs accelerated. It was then moved up even further, to November of this year, when the numbers surged past expectations, Gruenewald said. 

“Something is happening globally,” Gruenewald told members of Life.Church during Sunday’s service, adding that “Gen Z is open to the Bible.” 

Gruenewald pointed to the rise in Bible sales – driven in part by Gen Z, he said – as well as to revivals breaking out on college campuses nationwide. 

“There’s massive momentum,” he said. “We’re not simply celebrating a milestone. We’re celebrating momentum. And it’s not just about people getting the Bible into their hands. It’s about getting the Bible into their hearts. They’re actually opening it. They’re actually reading it. And we know that God’s Word can transform lives.” 

Although it took more than a decade for YouVersion to reach the 1 billion milestone, Gruenewald believes the second billion will be reached within five years and the third just three years after that. 

YouVerson is available in 3,600 translations in more than 2,300 languages. 

“In a world where everyone’s searching for what’s real and true, we’ve seen one thing consistently transform lives, and that’s daily engagement with Scripture,” Gruenewald said. 

The founder and CEO first conceived the idea of YouVersion in 2007 while standing in a security line at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. It started with a simple question: Can technology help people engage more consistently with the Bible? That idea led to a YouVersion website and then to a mobile app – one that took off after Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone in 2007. YouVersion became one of the first apps in the App Store. 

“You never know what God’s going to do when you take one small step of faith,” he said. 

Some 83,000 people installed YouVersion on their brand-new iPhones the first weekend it was available. Gruenewald and his team were thrilled. 

He acknowledged he never envisioned YouVersion reaching 1 billion installs. 

“[But] I thank God that we actually serve a God who isn’t limited by our imagination,” he said. 

“He’s able to do more.”