In November 2025, the world’s most popular Bible app, YouVersion, will celebrate its billionth download. This is the story …
History
YouVersion started as an idea by Bobby Gruenewald, who was part of Life.Church, an evangelical church in Oklahoma. He had started writing a website to sell car parts, and the idea for YouVersion came to him as he was standing in a long airport security queue at Chicago's O’Hare Airport in October 2006 as he was thinking about how to harness technology to read the Bible more.
YouVersion the website
He immediately registered the domain name YouVersion.com to build a website, and the first hurdle was to get licences for the texts. He was contacted by Mart Green from Hobby Lobby, who offered to help. Hobby Lobby is a network of craft and hobby stores across the US, run by the evangelical Green family, who have been great supporters of the project over the years.
YouVersion launched as a website in September 2007, allowing users to read and annotate the Bible online. It attracted around 20,000 visitors in the first three months, but it did not gain consistent repeat use.
YouVersion the app
YouVersion first became an app when it launched on Blackberry devices. In 2007, the original iPhone launched with built-in apps but no app store. Then, early in 2008, Steve Jobs introduced the Software Development Kit (SDK) for app development, allowing developers to add applications — and the YouVersion saw an opportunity to adapt the platform for mobile devices.
YouVersion was launched as an app on the very first day of the Apple App Store, on 10 July 2008. It was among the first 200 mobile phone apps in the world, and for a while, it was the first and only Bible app. It started with fifteen Bible versions in English and Spanish. Within the first weekend, YouVersion had been installed 83,000 times. These few hundred apps marked the start of the iPhone app ecosystem.
Growth
In those first few years, many more languages and Bible versions were added. In 2011, YouVersion partnered with the Digital Bible Library (DBL) from the United Bible Societies (UBS), which offered texts in a generic format with digital licenses. This significantly accelerated the ability to incorporate new Bible versions because it overcame the earlier challenges of time-consuming text conversion and licensing agreements. Now, almost all of YouVersion’s content is licensed through the DBL.
In July 2013, YouVersion had been downloaded 100 million times. In April 2014, new features were introduced for community engagement and social interaction. During 2014, YouVersion hit the milestone of 1,000 Bible versions in over 700 languages. By December 2015, YouVersion had been downloaded 200 million times.
Two things resulted in massive growth in downloads. The first was the global rise in smartphone use, which boosted app downloads. The second was adding more languages to the app, which attracted increasingly high numbers of users worldwide, beyond the US. Many Bibles that were only in book form have been transcribed by volunteers from MissionAssist for different agencies and added to YouVersion.
Billionth download
At the end of 2021, YouVersion marked its 500 millionth download. In a blog article dated November 2011, they wrote, “Imagine a day in the near future when 1 billion people have installed YouVersion.” Well, they have just announced the billionth download.
That is not necessarily the same as one billion people with access, because some may have downloaded it multiple times on different devices, or again when upgrading their mobile phones. Others might have downloaded it and later deleted it. Whichever way we look at it though, a billion downloads is an incredible statistic for a Christian app — for any app, actually.
In terms of apps, applications like Google and Facebook will have more users, but YouVersion is the most downloaded and most used Christian app in the world.
Statistics
Today, YouVersion hosts Bible translations in many languages. The app now has interfaces in 70 languages and has been downloaded across the world. It includes hundreds of full Bibles in many languages. Some major languages may have more than one version in the app. Sometimes there are parts of the Bible, such as New Testaments, portions like the Psalms, or a Gospel.
The Bible, in full or in part, is on YouVersion in over 2,300 languages and dialects, in many writing systems. Sometimes a language may have multiple items, so in total, YouVersion hosts over 3,500 items. Audio versions are also available for over 2,200 items.
One of the most popular aspects of YouVersion is the “Verse for the Day” feature. The app has continued to develop with new features, and there are now many other reading plans and devotionals available.
The app can be downloaded in all app stores as “YouVersion” or “The Bible App.” There is also an accompanying website, https://bible.com, which you can view on a computer. For some people, YouVersion is their Bible — and now digital Bible distribution outstrips print.
Offices
YouVersion is based in Edmond, Oklahoma, US, and employs over 200 people full-time, with more than 3,000 volunteers. They employ technology experts and partner with Bible agencies around the world.
The model of YouVersion is that, unlike many apps, it carries no advertising but is funded by generous donors who support the Bible mission.
2025 has been the biggest year of growth and YouVersion will be holding an event at Life.Church in Edmond, Oklahoma, on Monday 17 November to celebrate - it will also be broadcast live. Amazon Prime will declare November to be Bible Month, and some major landmarks will be lit up to celebrate.
