Amazon Now Has More Than 50,000 Alexa Skills in the U.S. and It Has Tripled the Rate of New Skills Added Per Day

Amazon now has over 50,000 Alexa skills in the U.S. alone. The milestone was passed on Thursday morning when it stood at 50,101.

The Alexa skill count grew between 50-60 new skills per day between the 10k and 40k milestones. That figure more than tripled to an average of 168 new skills per day between the 40k and 50k milestones.

The new Alexa skill rate decreased the number of days to add 10,000 new skills to 60 days from 185 for the previous milestone.

Amazon this week passed 50,000 Alexa skills in the U.S. skill store. The company announced 50,000 skills worldwide in late August, but that included unique skills across all of the countries it supports. As of early Thursday morning, that figure was eclipsed in the U.S. alone.

Even more notable is the rapid acceleration of new Alexa skill submission over the past two months. Amazon added 10,000 Alexa skills leading up to the 20k, 30k and 40k milestones at a rate of 60, 50, and 54 new skills per day respectively. Between the 40k and 50k milestones, the rate more than tripled to 168 new Alexa skills per day.

What Led to the Rapid Increase in New Alexa Skills?

Voicebot reported in September that Amazon passed 40,000 Alexa skills in the U.S. The pattern of growth was relatively consistent for the period between 10k and 40k skill and then accelerated dramatically. The Voice Insider newsletter noted the rapid acceleration in early November and attributed the rise at least in part of several popular incentives. These included a new Echo Show 2nd Gen and a special edition for the Echo for developers that submitted multiple skills. Developers can now receive an Echo Spot and buttons based on current incentives.

Jeff Bolton of Voice Apps suggested that his platform may be making a difference. Voice Apps has a software solution that helps launch Alexa skills without code. Think of it as Alexa Blueprints for publishing into the Alexa skill store. He tells Voicebot that about 70 new Alexa skills are being launched globally through Voice Apps daily and just over 40 of those are in the U.S. That clearly is making an impact and it is nearly as many new Alexa skills per day as Amazon was previously publishing before the 40k milestone. However, even if you remove these from the totals, the rate of new Alexa skills per day more than doubled and it tripled when you include the Voice Apps number.

Most likely, the recent acceleration was caused by a combination of incentives, new tools that make it easier to launch Alexa skills for non-developers, and the time of year. Many of the new skills are of the trivia, joke, facts variety so they may not be adding a great deal to the Alexa experience. However, we can report that the trend actually picked up a bit with over 200 skills added between Thursday and Friday of this week.

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