At 30.3 million users as of Oct 2019, Apple Pay has overtaken the popular Starbucks app to become the most popular method of mobile payments, with usage expected to only go up.

This number is going up. Apple Pay had 30.3 million users, taking up 47.3% of all mobile payment users in the U.S., up 38% from estimates in 2018 at the same time by eMarketer, followed by Starbucks at 25.2 million, up 8%, and Google Pay in third at 12.1 million users, up 9%. As retailers increasingly adopt mobile payment methods, eMarketer estimates that total volume of transactions will reach $161.41 billion by 2021.

Increasingly, many American stores accept Apple Pay over other proximity mobile payment platforms, which can explain its dominance. Apple Pay is available already at major retailers such as Target, Walmart and Costco. Usage of proximity mobile payments depend upon both consumer adoption and retailer acceptance and since Apple has a strong brand, people are more willing to use new services within its ecosystem.

Apple Pay’s usage is also growing in other parts of the world with more adoption increasingly in the EU, at retailers and in flight with one-touch app payment methods and paying for fuel at some gas stations through a smartphone, according to the European Payments Council. An electronic receipt is displayed after the payment is completed and is sent to the driver’s email address.