# What percentage of mobile apps have a dedicated empty-state screen?

Source: Lazyweb Research
Published: 2026-07-07
Sample size: n=809
Tags: mobile, ux-patterns, design, onboarding
HTML: https://www.lazyweb.com/research/percent-apps-empty-state-screen
Markdown: https://www.lazyweb.com/research/percent-apps-empty-state-screen.md

**Answer.** 46% of tracked apps have an explicit empty-state screen — 370 of 809.[1] That puts intentional empty states just below the halfway mark, on par with in-flow upsells and ahead of social login (41%).[2] A designed empty state is common enough to be a best-practice signal, but more than half of apps still ship without one.

> 370 of 809 tracked apps (46%) have an explicit empty-state screen — July 2026.

## The finding

Explicit empty-state screens appear in 370 of 809 apps (45.7%).[1] That's slightly below social-adjacent essentials but comfortably ahead of paywalls (38%) and referral (25%).[2] Nearly half of apps intentionally design the zero-data moment — the other half leave it blank or generic.

## How to apply this

Empty states are a cheap, high-leverage win precisely because they're not universal — shipping a good one puts you in the more polished half of the corpus. Use them to teach the first action (add your first item, connect a source, invite a teammate) rather than just showing 'nothing here.' They pair naturally with onboarding and activation goals. If your app has lists, feeds, or collections that start empty, this is 46%-common table stakes for a considered experience.

## Caveats

Lower bound: counts apps where an empty-state screen was captured among median 41 screens.[3] Empty states are easy to miss in capture, so true prevalence is likely higher than 46%. Deduped by company; base 809 (751 tagged).[3]

## The numbers

| Stat | Computed from |
| --- | --- |
| 370 of 809 apps (45.7%) have an empty-state screen | prevalence_empty_state |
| social login 329 (40.7%), paywall 305 (37.7%), referral 205 (25.3%) | prevalence_social_login, prevalence_paywall_screen, prevalence_referral_invite |
| Universe 809 apps, median 41 captured screens | universe_denominators |

## Methodology

Universe: 809 mobile apps with at least one captured screenshot. Method: empty-state tag match deduped by COUNT(DISTINCT company_name), July 2026. Caveat: lower bound, likely undercounted.

## Sources & citations

- [1] Lazyweb Research analysis of 809 mobile apps (apps with >=1 captured screenshot), July 2026. 370 distinct companies with an empty-state tag match over 809.
- [2] Lazyweb Research analysis of 809 mobile apps (apps with >=1 captured screenshot), July 2026. Comparison patterns deduped by company.
- [3] Lazyweb Research analysis of 809 mobile apps (apps with >=1 captured screenshot), July 2026. Lower bound; empty states are easily missed in capture.

## Related questions

- [Which screens do almost every mobile app have, and which are actually rare?](https://www.lazyweb.com/research/most-common-mobile-app-screens-census)
- [What percentage of mobile apps show a notification permission primer?](https://www.lazyweb.com/research/percent-apps-notification-primer-screen)