How Is Kalshi Doing In Customer Acquisition After Going Viral?
The prediction market platform has been growing in recent months and got a small bump after a viral commercial, but downloads still trail most established sportsbooks and fantasy sports apps.
Kalshi’s download numbers paint a picture both of recent growth and a ceiling that is still not even close to being realized.
The good for Kalshi
Since Kalshi has become a sports betting app, downloads have been on a steady increase, per Sensor Tower data.
Back in March, Kalshi was in the 200s among free finance apps by downloads. But since early May, it’s routinely been in the top 100 by downloads:
Kalshi launched sports event contracts in January.
A commercial that went somewhat viral on social media and aired during the NBA Finals last week provided a small bump, and indeed helped Kalshi to its best ranking in finance apps since the elections in November. But that bump to No. 54 was still relatively small in the grand scheme of things.
Room to grow
Despite those gains in download numbers, Kalshi is still trailing most established sportsbooks and fantasy sports apps in downloads.
Per Sensor Tower data, Kalshi has around 60,000 downloads over the past month via the App Store. By comparison:
FanDuel, the largest US sportsbook, had about 300,000 downloads.
PrizePicks, the largest fantasy pick’em operator, had about 200,000 downloads.
The best comps for Kalshi are BetMGM (sportsbook) and Dabble (fantasy) at 80,000; and DraftKings Picks 6 (fantasy) and Caesars (sportsbook) at 40,000.
Of note in all of this data:
Kalshi is available in all 50 states but offers a less robust sports betting product.
Fantasy pick’em apps are available in a smaller cohort of states.
Online sportsbooks are in even fewer states. They are not available for betting in the three largest states — California, Texas, and Florida.
Sportsbooks and fantasy apps pay much more for customer acquisition and marketing than Kalshi does.
Some of this is offset by the fact that Robinhood — which is much bigger and a more downloaded app — is a conduit to trade some of Kalshi’s markets. And another caveat: these are just download numbers, not customers who are depositing and trading at Kalshi.
Here’s one final data point from Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan on X/Twitter:
