String bikinis? Check. Extra sunscreen? Check. Walls of cameras so millions of Americans can watch your spicy summer flings happen in real time? Check. Love Island USA, where contestants make out, couple up, and fight while lounging around a neon-colored villa in swimwear, is currently nearing the “climax” of its eighth season. This summer’s biggest bombshell? The Love Island USA app, where levels of viewer engagement are so high that it crashed during the first vote.
Fans of the real-time dating show relish controlling the action through their in-app votes, helping decide who couples up and who gets dumped. Fan votes happen around five times during each season and aren’t announced ahead of time. The votes let users pick their favorite couple, which exiled cast members they think should be brought back, and eventually cast a vote for which Islander pair should win the popularity contest and $100,000. Earlier in this season, for example, the duos who received the fewest votes from viewers for “favorite couple” were on the chopping block to be booted off the show.
While the main use of the app is for voting, users can also scroll through an Instagram-like feed of videoclips, photo shoots, and polls. And, of course, the Love Island USA app includes shopping links so the most fervent viewers can snatch some merch.
The Love Island USA app now has more than 10 million unique users, the show’s producers tell WIRED. Since this season’s premier in June, it has hit the number one spot in the iOS App Store’s Entertainment category nine times—a category it shares with giants like Netflix and TikTok—according to app analytics company Apptopia.
Courtesy of Reece Rodgers
Love Island USA producers see the app as a critical component to keeping fans engaged, whether it’s through official votes or other polls. “More than anything, it’s reinforced for us how passionate this fan base is and how eager they are to make their voices heard,” says executive producer Bernie Schaeffer. “I mean, say what you want about this statistic, but we have more people voting on the Love Island USA app than we do in many political elections taking place across the country.”
Fans of Love Island have to be glued to their TV screens constantly if they want all the juicy deets before casting a vote that could impact their favorite couples, since the show airs five times a week and voting windows are open for only a few hours. “The show moves fast, and within hours of the public casting their votes, we’re already revealing and filming those results with the cast,” says Schaeffer.
The team has a road map before each season starts, in terms of fan vote moments. Even so, they are always ready to pivot and evolve that plan based on the ensuing drama as well as how fans are reacting on social media.
