More Americans are turning to gig-work, according to Apptopia’s data on the six largest worker-side apps: DoorDash-Dasher, Uber-Driver, Instacart Shopper, Lyft Driver, Shipt, and Gopuff Driver. Daily active users across those apps are (so far, through 5/17/26) up 19.0% YoY in Q2 2026.
DoorDash [NASDAQ: DASH] continues to own the market share, representing 57% of daily active gig workers. Keep in mind, some of these users may also be users of other gig work apps (more on that below). The next closest app is Uber Driver, owning 28.7% of the share.
Dasher DAU up 21.9% YoY in Q2, down from earlier peaks of +61.4% in Q4 2025 and +43.5% in Q1 2026, but still a notable acceleration off an already elevated base. Gopuff Driver grew DAU +53.7% YoY off a small base, with downloads on pace to be up 128.1%. Q1 2026 downloads grew 106.7%, marketing two consecutive quarters of acquisition growth over 100%.
Grocery-delivery app Instacart Shopper [NASDAQ: CART] grew even faster at +23.1% YoY. Uber [NYSE: UBER] grew its driver-side DAU +16.1% YoY, tracking close to the 21% YoY active-driver growth Uber reported in Q1 2026 prepared remarks. Lyft Driver [NASDAQ: LYFT] was the laggard at +7.1% DAU growth, with downloads still declining (-2% YoY) for the sixth consecutive quarter. Shipt, owned by Target [NYSE: TGT], grew DAU +13.5% but saw downloads fall 4.5%.
Who are they?
Gig workers tend to be workers in the middle of their careers. The 36-45 age cohort represents the largest user base for four out of the six apps we analyzed, while the remaining two have their largest cohorts as the 46+ age bracket.
PYMNTS Intelligence reported in February 2026 that 42% of US consumers live paycheck-to-paycheck out of necessity, up sharply from earlier in the year, with the share citing layoffs, federal spending cuts, and tariff-related income volatility growing. Apptopia’s data suggests that pressure is landing hardest on workers in their mid-career years, and might be extending downward.
So far in Q2, the 17-25 age cohort is the fastest growing for four of the six apps we analyzed (and by a wide margin). GoPuff Driver has grown young users 97.5% year-over-year in Q2. Lyft Driver came in at 70.3% while Uber Driver registered growth at 27.4%. Shipt grew its youngest gig workers by 21.7%.
A multi-app endeavor
Gig work is increasingly a multi-app endeavor. Looking at the cross-app overlap data, the average DoorDash Dasher has roughly a 1-in-5 chance of also being active on Uber Driver, and a 1-in-7 chance of being on Instacart Shopper in any given month. While smaller apps look more like satellites of the big two — over half of Shipt, Lyft, Instacart Shopper, and Gopuff users also use DoorDash, and 38-54% also open Uber Driver. In practical terms, a typical worker on a smaller platform is probably running 2-3 apps in parallel, while Dashers and Uber drivers are more likely to stick to their primary.
Shipt’s user base is the most aggressively multi-apping bunch in the data. Since Q1 2025, overlap with Uber jumped +5.6pp and with Instacart Shopper +4.1pp, suggesting Target’s workforce is increasingly moonlighting elsewhere even as Shipt’s own DAU has grown 14.8% over the same time period.
