With the aim of increasing engagement with the Bible across mobile devices, YouVersion, the free bible App, has achieved over 10 million downloads across different mobile devices and platforms with a total 3.5 billion minutes spent on the app. This makes YouVersion the top downloaded application of its kind existing in the market today.

It has been growing rapidly since its launch in 2008 with a consistent 1 million new users per month, and consequently, maintains its position among the top 5 most downloaded apps in the reference category of the iTunes App Store.

“We are thrilled to reach this milestone with our amazing community, which spans the globe,” said Bobby Gruenewald, Pastor, Innovation leader for LifeChurch.tv (creators of YouVersion). “We are humbled by the growth and know we only reached this number because of the constant and unique way our users share YouVersion with each other. We are working hard to promote innovation at the intersection of technology and faith all the while witnessing the Bible being read, engaged with and shared in inspiring ways.”

In line with this milestone, YouVersion will host a special live broadcast starting 1pm EST on November 16, to celebrate the success along with a discussion of future goals. See here for more information.

YouVersion has kept pace with the growing demand for modern experience in connecting the Bible to people’s daily lives. Currently, they have copies translated in over 20 different languages and in over 40 different version both traditional and modern. YouVersion also allows users to to follow along during services, reading message outlines, voting in polls and asking questions anonymously. Congregants also make use of the Bible App to set weekly and monthly reading goals.

“We live in a world that is increasingly mobile and social, and people are leveraging new technology to seek answers to the questions they have in life. We want to empower our users, both existing and future, to use the Bible App to find answers to their questions and to reach their personal and spiritual goals,” said Gruenewald. “Whether you just want to read a little a day, follow along on your phone in church, recommend a reading plan to a friend or have a place to jot down your thoughts on a passage, we’re striving to provide a system and, more importantly, a community to support your journey.”

YouVersion also attributes its success to social networks like Facebook and Twitter which is a viral way of sharing certain passages, with over half a million passages tweeted (that breaks down to 1 every 34 seconds).