Spurred by the popularity of the World Cup, prediction markets operator Kalshi is dominating mobile app downloads on iOS and Android.
A chart shared by Dustin Gouker on his Event Horizon Substack showed the Kalshi reached more than 267,000 daily downloads toward the end of June, more than three times as much as its leading competitor, Polymarket.
Looking at the data
The chart was created using Bloomberg Terminal, a software system that accesses and aggregates real-time market data.
Michael McDonough, Head of Market Innovation at Bloomberg, shared a chart similar to the one shown on Event Horizon on X (Twitter).
“You can see the significant impact the World Cup has had on @Kalshi, while easily tracking the relative trends of other prediction markets and sports apps,” he wrote.
A chart comparing Kalshi to other prediction market operators and sportsbooks was also posted by Kalshi CMO Allan Maman.
“Over the past few weeks, Kalshi has acquired millions of users and crossed more than $65B in volume,” he wrote, before noting that Kalshi was looking to hire employees in several roles.
Kalshi was already being downloaded at a rate above all of its competitors in finance, prediction markets, and sports betting before the World Cup began. That’s significant, since several competitors were also seeing spikes in their daily downloads.
Despite that, Kalshi’s approximate 100,000 daily downloads just before the World Cup began are still less than 40% of its latest 267,000. The data also ends before July, which has produced extremely high trading volumes at prediction markets.
Sports lead the way
According to Ticker Tracker, Kalshi reported an all-time record $2.13 billion daily volume on July 11. That was the same day as World Cup quarterfinal matches between England and Norway and Argentina and Switzerland.
90.8% of the trading volume was produced by sports prediction markets and combos, the prediction market equivalent of parlays. Crypto markets accounted for 7.8% of the total volume, leaving 1.4% to be divided among all remaining sectors.
The strong support for sports markets has proven to be highly controversial with state regulators. Many local officials have argued that sports event contracts allow prediction platforms to offer unlicensed sports betting services to local consumers without requiring the platforms to be locally regulated or to pay a share of gaming taxes.
Nothing new
Kalshi’s embrace of mobile use predated its surge in downloads. In March, Kalshi became the first prediction market operator to partner with mobile payment service, Cash App. The partnership allowed 59 million active monthly customers to use their Cash App balance to fund their Kalshi accounts.
Although the recent numbers represented extreme improvements, Kalshi has also seen strong mobile growth for the past year. A November 2025 report stated that Kalshi’s mobile app had surged 23% in daily downloads, outpacing its sportsbook competitors.
The app works the same as the web platform. Customers locate various prediction markets, where they can buy and sell “Yes” and “No” contracts associated with outcomes across a variety of industries. Customers win or lose their contract values depending on how an event settles once it is complete, unless they sell the positions they hold.