Danish wishlist app GoWish has made history by reaching the No. 1 spot on the US App Store, achieving this milestone with a record-breaking 155,403 downloads from American users in a single day on Sunday, November 16. The achievement comes as the Copenhagen-based social shopping platform surpasses 15 million users globally, with more than 7,234,423 registered US users and over 3.5 million users in Denmark, accounting for over half of the Danish population.
From Scandinavian Roots to Global Phenomenon
Originally launched in 2015 as a wishlist project by the Danish-Swedish postal service PostNord under the name Ønskeskyen (“wish cloud”), the app was spun off in 2020 by VC Dotcom Capital. With its international rebrand as GoWish in 2023, the platform rapidly evolved into a global social shopping powerhouse. In early 2025, Capital D, a London-based private equity firm, acquired a one-third stake, fueling the app’s international ambitions and success.
Unprecedented User Growth
GoWish experienced a surge across multiple countries, currently topping App Store charts in not only the US, but also Norway and Sweden. Over the past 10 days, since November 7, GoWish has added more than 1.1 million new users globally. This rapid growth includes breaking into the top two iOS app rankings in the US, nearly doubling its user base from the previous year, and reaching a new milestone of over 7.2 million US users and 15 million users worldwide. In its home market of Denmark, GoWish has over 50% market penetration, with more than 3.5 million Danish users, reflecting its broad mainstream appeal.
GoWish credits this meteoric rise to a strategic, data-driven rollout and creative partnerships with leading digital advertisers—including Meta, TikTok, Google, and especially Snap, which spotlighted GoWish as a top success on its Q4 earnings call due to its standout performance on cost-per-install and total installs. As the holidays approach, GoWish expects continued increases in downloads and engagement, positioning itself as not just a seasonal favorite but as an essential social shopping platform supporting a network of over 65,000 affiliates and more than 700 brand partners across global markets.
Innovation in Gifting and Social Shopping
GoWish enables users to create and share wishlists for any occasion, pulling products from any online store or from its in-app inspiration feeds. The platform also allows friends and family to reserve gifts, helping to avoid duplicates and make gifting more thoughtful and stress-free—a significant benefit during the holiday season. The app’s explosive growth is credited to a data-driven global rollout and partnerships with Meta, TikTok, Google, and, in particular, Snap. In fact, Snap featured GoWish as a standout partner, highlighting that it outperformed other large digital platforms in both cost-per-install and total app installs.
Casper Ravn-Sørensen, Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer at GoWish, reflected on the milestone: “This is not just a defining moment for GoWish, but Danish tech in general, as we become the first non-gaming app out of Denmark to hit no. 1 on the US app store.” He added, “Just five years ago, we spun the platform out, and to envision that we went from a state-owned Scandinavian wishlist gimmick to a global social shopping phenomenon, topping the download charts in the US, is a pretty wild origin story—and with much more to come, this is just the beginning.”
Positioning for the Holiday Surge
With Black Friday and the peak holiday shopping season approaching, GoWish anticipates further spikes in both downloads and user engagement. Ravn-Sørensen stated that their mission to “fix gifting” resonates especially strongly during the holidays and will continue to drive expansion into new markets and partnerships.
