San Francisco, Aug 21 (IANS): Meta-owned Facebook has been struggling to maintain its position among the Top 10 apps on the US App Store this year, says a new report.

According to an analysis of iPhone App Store data, as younger consumers shift to newer social networking experiences like TikTok and now BeReal, the tech giant's app has lost traction in the App Store's Top Charts, reports TechCrunch.

As per the report, last year, Facebook only fell out of the Top 10 free iPhone apps in the US seven times. But in 2022, that figure has already soared to 97 -- an indication that Facebook may be losing ground as new apps push their way into the App Store's top rankings.

For a more direct comparison, Facebook's app fell out of the App Store's Top 10 apps just six times during the first half of 2021. In the first half of 2022, however, it has dropped out of this grouping a total of 59 times, per data provided to TechCrunch by app intelligence firm Sensor Tower.

It even once stayed out of the Top 10 for as long as 37 consecutive days in 2022, the firm noted, up from just two consecutive days in 2021.

Additional analysis provided by another App Store data provider, data.ai, formerly App Annie, also supported this conclusion -- though it found the app dropped out of the Top 10 on iPhone in the US only 4 times throughout 2021, compared with 110 days in 2022 so far.

It found Facebook's drop-off times this year were mainly concentrated in April, May and June. April was Facebook's worst month so far, as the app's rank fell into the 30s on April 18, and then reached as low as No. 44 on April 21.

Notably, this was around when BeReal was climbing the App Store's Top Charts, breaking into the Top 5.

Currently, BeReal is the No. 1 non-gaming app on the US App Store.