Robinhood’s 600,000-Download Day Underscores App’s Staying Power

Being cast as a villain in the Reddit-fueled GameStop trading saga is doing little to damage Robinhood’s popularity.

The no-fee brokerage app has continued to lead industry downloads, defying expectations that a user exodus would follow the howls of anger that greeted its move to block purchases of some hot stocks last week. Robinhood Markets will make a bid to capitalize even more on the trading mania this Sunday, when it’ll run a Super Bowl ad that tells potential customers “You don’t need to become an investor, you were born one.”

The app was downloaded more than 600,000 times last Friday alone, according ...