Select one column (with multiple rows) 5 times from the same table with different dates in the where clause - pivot

Question

The DB records all user activity daily. I am trying to compile a summary report to display total number of actions per day per user. The problem is I want to stack the results next to each other. I have refered to the following stackoverflow questions.
mysql Select one column twice from the same table with different dates in the where clause
Select two columns from same table with different WHERE conditions
but I still continue to get the "subquery returns more than one row error #1242". All help is appreciated. Thank you.
This is my query, just for 2 days to start with.
SELECT LOGGEDIN_USER AS EnquiryHero,
( SELECT COUNT(user_id) from applications
DATE_TIME like "2016-08-24%" group by user_id ) as Day1,
( SELECT COUNT(user_id)from applications
WHERE DATE_TIME like "2016-08-25%" group by user_id ) as Day2,
from applications WHERE DATE_TIME like "2016-08-24%" group by user_id;
--
SELECT user_id,
( SUM( IF( the_day ='2016-08-24', ct, 0 ))) AS 2016-08-24,
( SUM( IF( the_day ='2016-08-25', ct, 0 ))) AS 2016-08-25,
( SUM( IF( the_day ='2016-08-26', ct, 0 ))) AS 2016-08-26,
( SUM( IF( the_day ='2016-08-27', ct, 0 ))) AS 2016-08-27,
FROM ( select user_id, DATE(date_time) AS the_day, loggedin_user, COUNT(*) AS ct
FROM applications GROUP BY 1,2 ) AS x
GROUP BY user_id;

Answer 1

First focus on getting the data; then focus on "pivoting" the data.
SELECT user_id,
DATE(`date_time`) AS the_day,
COUNT(*) AS ct
FROM applications
GROUP BY 1, 2;
See if that gives you the data desired; then look at how to "pivot". See the extra tag I added.
Then pivot
SELECT user_id,
(SUM(IF(the_day = '2016-08-24', ct, 0) AS '2016-08-24',
(SUM(IF(the_day = '2016-08-25', ct, 0) AS '2016-08-25',
(SUM(IF(the_day = '2016-08-26', ct, 0) AS '2016-08-26',
(SUM(IF(the_day = '2016-08-27', ct, 0) AS '2016-08-27',
...
FROM (
the query above
) AS x
GROUP BY user_id;