In the last six months, mentions of yoga and related apps jumped 46% compared to the same period before. With both the highest number of mentions and the highest percentage change, it’s the most popular activity we looked at.

Meanwhile, mentions of mediation and mindfulness were up 45% and 37% respectively in the last six months compared to the six months prior – significant jumps for both activities.

What were people talking about?

“Love” and “life” (18m and 15m mentions, respectively) were the top-used keywords in relation to the activities we looked at from January 2019 to August 31 2020. People discussed why they loved their chosen activity and how they had incorporated it into their daily lives.

In a similar vein, we spotted 14m mentions about “time” in the same period. People discussed how they wished they had taken more time to do these activities, or that they are worth spending time on. We also found 10m mentions of “fitness” and “mind” respectively.

For some, lockdown presented the perfect opportunity to try new activities or reconnect with those they didn’t have time for previously.

There are plenty of apps for that!

Using our Consumer Research platform, we also found that consumers have been on the hunt for apps to help them start or progress with their chosen activity.

From January 2019 to August 2020, we found 596k mentions of yoga, mediation, and mindfulness apps. These mentions included recommendations as well as those looking for new apps to try.

Mentions of these apps jumped during lockdown. From March to August 2020 we found 202k mentions – an increase of 31% in comparison to the six months prior.

Google Trends search interest data echoed our social data findings. Both meditation and yoga apps saw enormous interest during lockdown – the highest levels we found in our search, which dated back to 2010.