When he launched the YouVersion Bible App in 2008, Bobby Gruenewald never imagined the reach and impact it would have.
"There's been lots of challenges and ups and downs, but we never thought it would be possible 17 and a half years ago that we'd be celebrating a milestone of 1 billion installs," he told Fox News Digital. "But that's what we celebrated last Monday."
Now, more than a decade later, the CEO and founder of YouVersion says renewed interest in the Bible is unmistakable and growing faster than ever.
"We’re seeing it globally, for sure, including in the U.S. It’s actually been a trend line that’s been happening for probably more than a year now. It picked up pace even more this year," Gruenewald said.
YouVersion, created by Gruenewald and Life.Church, celebrated surpassing one billion installations across its family of apps at its "Beyond a Billion" event at the Paycom Center on Nov. 17.
The event featured messages from Gruenewald and Life.Church Senior Pastor Craig Groeschel, with worship led by Christian artists, including Lauren Daigle, Phil Wickham and CeCe Winans.
The app’s growth, Gruenewald said, reflects a wider cultural hunger for faith and truth.
"Here we are in November, which is definitely not a peak time, and we’re seeing the all-time historical record days for engagement in the Bible app," he said, noting that engagement typically spikes around New Year’s Day and Easter.
Some faith leaders have suggested the nation is experiencing a surge in spiritual revival, with Bible sales rising 36% in September, according to a recent Wall Street Journal analysis. That follows a 22% boom in 2024 and reports from some churches of higher attendance.
Gruenewald sees that revival reflected especially among young people.
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"Gen Z is more open to the Bible than we ever anticipated would happen," he said. "We live in a world where we’re trying to question the veracity of everything that we consume," he added, referring to the rise of AI. "The natural reaction to that is to search for and look for things that are actually real and can be trusted and are true."
"We feel like this is sort of a perfect setup for the Bible because there’s nothing like it in the world," he continued. "It has been moved and translated carefully from generation to generation for thousands of years."
Gruenewald first had the idea for a digital Bible to help him read Scripture more consistently in 2006. The first version, a website, failed, but the setback pushed his team to reimagine the project for mobile devices. Their idea evolved into a Bible app, which launched in Apple’s App Store in 2008 with the help of a young volunteer.
He believes part of the app’s success is that it’s entirely free to users and does not run ads or sell or monetize data while still offering a high-quality experience.
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YouVersion partners with 30,000 ministries and publishers worldwide and is supported by tens of thousands of donors monthly. Thousands of volunteers help offer the Bible in more than 3,600 versions and over 2,300 languages, he said.
"We just don’t want there to be any barriers to people being able to use it," Gruenewald explained.
YouVersion says it has seen record-breaking engagement in the past year, with app installations rising 12% globally, year over year, and daily usage up 18%. In the United Kingdom, there have been more than 17.7 million app installs, according to YouVersion.
Gruenewald said their team is humbled by the app’s growth.
"We see ourselves as stewarding this on behalf of the kingdom; it’s not ours," he reflected.
After reaching 1 billion installs, he believes the next billion could come in as little as five years — and the third in three.
"The best is yet to come still," he added. "We’re just kind of at the beginning of what God is wanting to do."
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