VK ecosystem apps lose 1.35 million monthly active users in July

August 16, 2026 · cablemanru

VKontakte's monthly active users fell 1.1% in July, to 51.8 million, as VK's app ecosystem lost 1.35 million MAU overall, according to Digital Budget. VK Music's audience dropped 8% to 3.48 million, Mail fell 6% to 20.7 million, and VK Messenger declined 3% to 9.7 million. VK Play posted the sharpest fall, down 27% to 14,600 users, while Max's growth slowed to 0.2%, reaching 45.75 million. The drop coincided with Apple removing VK apps from the App Store in late June, their disappearance from Google Play on July 16, and EU sanctions against VK's parent structure and Max's developer on July 13. VK disputes that the removals caused the decline, noting that a significant share of users on VKontakte, Mail and VK Play access the services through web versions, and cites Mediascope figures showing VKontakte's app audience up 1% to 75.94 million and Max up 1% to 81.39 million. The gap between the two data sets may reflect differing methodologies: Digital Budget counts app users who take action during the month, while Mediascope also counts those who only open the app.

Campaigns booked against VK's app inventory now sit on top of two conflicting audience readings, one from Digital Budget showing declines and one from Mediascope showing growth. Planners buying VKontakte, Max or VK Music placements have no single MAU figure to reconcile against reach targets until the two providers converge on a common counting method. Experts cited in the report expect the app store restrictions to bite harder in autumn, when device upgrades and OS updates make VK's apps harder to install or update outside official stores, a risk worth building into any campaign that assumes stable VK reach through the rest of the year.