Bumble Dating Study Reveals 2021 Was a Banner Year for Matches

Bumble says that singles are turning to dating apps more than ever, evidenced by its recent finding that over a billion matches were made on its app in 2021, a 25 percent increase from the previous year.

The dating app also shared that over 9 billion messages were exchanged globally, up nearly 40 percent from 2020, showing that dating app usage during lockdowns wasn’t a temporary thing. Rather, once restrictions lifted, people were more eager to login to the app and start looking for matches as well as virtual date, and were also eager to use dating apps to get back out there and meet matches in real life.  

Bumble said that the highest number of message exchanges were between October and early November, just prior to the holiday season. It’s also worth noting that this was just prior to the emergence of the highly contagious Omicron variant of Covid, which has led to global lockdowns and restrictions once again. Still, the company doesn’t see things slowing down as we enter into dating’s “high season,” between New Year’s and Valentine’s Day.

The dating app company also said that while matching and messaging were at all-time highs this year, people were also more “intentional” with dating and building “more meaningful connections.” The company’s “Dating Intentions” badge that highlighted what kind of relationship a user was looking for became one of the most popular filters among users, according to News 18 in India.

Bumble also revealed specific trends among Indian users, a fast-growing market of young daters under 30, including that “Film and TV” was one of their most popular interest badges along with “Sports” and “Food and Drink.” Anime was the most popular genre among Gen Z daters, while Bollywood was a top choice among millennials. 

As for food and drink, coffee was the most talked about beverage, followed by beer and Biryani.

Daters are increasingly interested in Astrology, so the company also decided to break down the star signs that got the most matches. Leos came in first, with Scorpio then Libras coming in second and third in India, respectively.

Not surprisingly, Bumble also offered the best times to be on the app. In India, it’s weekdays between 7 and 10pm. Tinder also recently shared that the most popular times to  be on its app were also between 7pm and 10pm, especially on “Dating Sunday,”  or January 2nd, the day that sees the highest traffic of the year. And no surprise, you will likely get more matches if you add more photos and use more prompts to fill out your profile, as people want to get a clear picture before matching.

For more information on this dating service, you can read our Bumble app review.