YouVersion CEO on Record Downloads and Interest in God's Word

Bobby Gruenewald is the founder and CEO of YouVersion and a pastor at Life. Church, where he leads innovation initiatives that merge technology with ministry. A former tech entrepreneur, Gruenewald helped launch the YouVersion Bible App...

Michael Foust

Updated Apr 30, 2025

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The founder and CEO of the world's most popular Bible app says record engagement shows that God is on the move globally, with a growing openness to Scripture unlike anything seen in recent memory. Easter Sunday marked a record day for the popular YouVersion Bible app, with 18.95 million users engaged with the Bible around the world, marking a 12 percent increase over the previous Easter.

But it wasn't the only record of 2025 for YouVersion, which has experienced a surge of 16 all-time highs so far this year, reflecting global trends indicating the popularity of God's Word is growing.

"We're obviously very humbled to be a part of something that, clearly, God's doing," Bobby Gruenewald, YouVersion Founder and CEO, told Crosswalk Headlines. "... This has been a record year for the Bible app, and there's a momentum that's building that we see happening globally."

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Originally published April 30, 2025.

Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.

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