Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile
  3. News

Apps featured by the Apple App Store saw a bump of up to 800% in downloads

Lulu Chang
By

It has long been the dream of iOS app developers everywhere to land a coveted spot on one of the App Store’s featured lists. But it’s not just bragging rights that these developers may be winning — it could also be a major spike in download numbers. As per a new report from Sensor Tower, apps that are featured in the App Store — particularly as the “App of the Day” or “Game of the Day,” can see their download numbers increase by as much as 800 percent.

The data certainly seems to support Apple’s claim that its new App Store in iOS 11, which made its debut in September, would increase exposure for developers and also help customers discover new and exciting apps. In conducting its recent study, Sensor Tower looked at data from September 2017 to present day; “Game of the Day” apps saw an increase of 802 percent in downloads when compared to the previous week (before being featured). “App of the Day” apps, on the other hand, enjoyed a 685 percent boost.

Related Videos

And while these two spots offered the greatest leg up, even being featured in one of the new App Store Stories or in an App List resulted in greater downloads by 222 percent and 240 percent, respectively. It appears that Apple has made good on its promise to help both creators and consumers alike with its app store redesign.

Related

The iOS 11 App Store offers a heavily curated view of apps; not only does it show potential customers what the most popular apps are in terms of downloads, it also shows off what Apple itself thinks of as the best or must-have apps. The App Store now offers app roundups, themed collections, as well as articles about certain apps and interviews with their developers.

However, it would appear that the apps that Apple is choosing to feature are still those that likely would have ended up with big download numbers anyway. In fact, Sensor Tower found that 13 of the top 15 featured developers already had at least one million U.S. iPhone downloads since the new App Store launched. That said, it is not the case that only the well-established developers are getting the limelight. Sensor Tower notes that about 29 percent of the apps the App Store featured had fewer than 10,000 downloads since the new App Store’s launch.

“While it’s clearly the case that big publishers are more likely to receive the largest number of features, small publishers still very much have their chance to benefit from a feature on the App Store,” said Jonathan Briskman, Sensor Tower’s Mobile Insights Analyst.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Pixel Watch update brings a much-requested Apple Watch feature
Man using the Google Pixel Watch's app menu.

The Pixel Watch is a solid first outing as Google's debut smartwatch. However, it's still lacking a handful of features that early adopters have been requesting that are found on similar devices. Luckily, today marks the start of the rollout of one frequently requested feature: fall detection.

Fall detection is a crucial health and safety feature that all smartwatches are better for having, and now the Pixel Watch is finally joining the ranks of the Apple Watch and the Galaxy Watch with its addition.

Read more
These Android apps are spying on you — and there’s no easy way to stop them
Illustration of a giant eye stalking through a phone

Android’s security woes need no introduction, but another threat that hasn’t received its fair share of awareness relates to spyware and stalkerware apps. These apps can secretly be installed on a victim’s phone to monitor their activity and can be exploited to harass victims of domestic abuse and engage in online stalking. All someone needs is physical access to the victim's phone to install these apps, which is not too difficult in cases of domestic abuse.

Call it an app-fueled version of AirTag stalking, but on steroids, because these spyware apps can steal everything including messages, call logs, emails, photos, and videos. Some can even activate the microphone and the camera, and secretly transfer these recordings to a remote server where the abuser can access it. Since Google Play's policies don't allow stalking apps, these apps are sold via third-party websites and need to be sideloaded.

Read more
The Galaxy Z Flip 5 may get a feature we’ve never seen before
Render of the Galaxy Z Flip 5 with two cover screens.

As we get closer to the launch of the Galaxy Z Flip 5, details have started surfacing more regularly. In February, we learned that the cover display will be much larger than the one found on the Galaxy Z Flip 4. Now, rumors seem to suggest that the new foldable will be the first of its kind sporting two discrete cover displays.

According to renders shared in a recent video by mobile insider SuperRoader, the Galaxy Z Flip 5's dual cover screens will greatly differentiate the foldable from the rest of its kind. The two screens are vastly different in size, and seem to serve two distinct functions.

Read more