As a cutting-edge technology, blockchain has aroused great interest from an increasing number of economists and management scholars. However, most of the prior studies are constrained in relevant topics of cryptocurrencies and payment systems, using theoretical analysis but lacking empirical support. Also, little is known about public blockchain platforms and their built-on decentralized applications (DApps). This study focuses on the growth of DApps, especially examining the driving forces of DApps’ adoption. With the empirical test using the sample of DApps on six popular public blockchain platforms, this paper finds that prior transaction volumes have a positive impact on DApps’ adoption. Moreover, under the inner blockchain tradeoff between decentralization and scalability, a choice between transaction security and speed for DApps’ users, the research argues that higher transactions will boost users to choose DApps in more decentralized platforms.