iOS Sale Numbers By App Store Rank

#1

Post by chrisa » Wed, May 08, 2013, 2:27 PM UTC

iOS Sale Numbers By App Store Rank
mobilesort.com

Re: iOS Sale Numbers By App Store Rank

#2

Post by chrisa » Wed, May 08, 2013, 2:41 PM UTC

I like it when other developers share their sales numbers, so I decided to share some of mine. I'm happy to answer any questions!

Re: iOS Sale Numbers By App Store Rank

#3

Post by namityadav » Wed, May 08, 2013, 3:15 PM UTC

I'm surprised that it took you only 80 downloads to reach top 25 in Music category. The education category needs many many times more downloads to be even close to top 25.

Re: iOS Sale Numbers By App Store Rank

#4

Post by nanijoe » Wed, May 08, 2013, 3:24 PM UTC

Regarding your footnote...Is top 50 really the inflection point? My experience has been top 25, then top 10. I don't have the exact figures, but I had an app (finance category) get in the top 25 on around 30 daily downloads, but bounced between 11 and 13 with 100-150 daily downloads. It never did get into the top 10, or I suspect I may have been posting this from my private jet :)

Re: iOS Sale Numbers By App Store Rank

#5

Post by chrisa » Wed, May 08, 2013, 3:25 PM UTC

namityadav wrote: post #3

I'm surprised that it took you only 80 downloads to reach top 25 in Music category. The education category needs many many times more downloads to be even close to top 25.

Is that paid, or free? The source used for numbers [1] shows 3,900 free downloads needed for top 25 in Music, which might be more in line with what you're seeing?

[1] http://www.distimo.com/blog/2012_05_quora-answering-series-d...

Re: iOS Sale Numbers By App Store Rank

#6

Post by chrisa » Wed, May 08, 2013, 3:31 PM UTC

nanijoe wrote: post #4

Regarding your footnote...Is top 50 really the inflection point? My experience has been top 25, then top 10. I don't have the exact figures, but I had an app (finance category) get in the top 25 on around 30 daily downloads, but bounced between 11 and 13 with 100-150 daily downloads. It never did get into the top 10, or I suspect I may have been posting this from my private jet :)

On the graph is looks like top 50 is where it started moving from "under 10" downloads to hitting the "exponential" part of the curve. But yes, I imagine that top 25 would show a similar jump, and top 10 even more so, as the top 10 in category list is what shows on the "Top Paid" list on iTunes.

Re: iOS Sale Numbers By App Store Rank

#7

Post by suhastech » Wed, May 08, 2013, 3:49 PM UTC

I posted my first mac app yesterday. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5668813

It got just 20 downloads (USA) and it went to the Top 75 in the Utilities category. I guess I missed the inflection point by just little bit.

The surprising part here is, all except 75 apps in the category gets less than 20 downloads? Whoa! Very little people on the top can make a living out of app development.

Re: iOS Sale Numbers By App Store Rank

#8

Post by malyk » Wed, May 08, 2013, 4:17 PM UTC

suhastech wrote: post #7

I posted my first mac app yesterday. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5668813 It got just 20 downloads (USA) and it went to the Top 75 in the Utilities category. I guess I missed the inflection point by just little bit. The surprising part here is, all except 75 apps in the category gets less than 20 downloads? Whoa! Very little people on the top can make a living out of app development.

I think the mac app store is a much much MUCH smaller market than the iOS app store. It's a new way for people to get apps on a desktop and my guess is the adoption is slower, so it isn't really surprising to me that 20 downloads puts you into the top of your category.

I have no data to back this up, btw. I'd be interested in seeing some mac vs. ios store numbers. Anyone?

Re: iOS Sale Numbers By App Store Rank

#9

Post by ja27 » Wed, May 08, 2013, 4:34 PM UTC

suhastech wrote: post #7

I posted my first mac app yesterday. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5668813 It got just 20 downloads (USA) and it went to the Top 75 in the Utilities category. I guess I missed the inflection point by just little bit. The surprising part here is, all except 75 apps in the category gets less than 20 downloads? Whoa! Very little people on the top can make a living out of app development.

Even in the iOS store, I'm often surprised at how few downloads it takes to chart in the top 1000. So there may be 80,000+ apps in a category, but clearly the vast majority of them receive very few downloads.

Re: iOS Sale Numbers By App Store Rank

#10

Post by teej » Wed, May 08, 2013, 5:18 PM UTC

There's this lingering myth about app store charts. The myth pertains to a magical "line", some sort of tipping point, over which all your download problems go away.

This myth is patently false.

From what I've seen with apps ranked anywhere from #1 to #5000, the organic download boost from being in the Top 50 is minuscule. It's not self sustaining. It's not magical. And it certainly doesn't make your problems go away.

As this article points out, the number of downloads you need to rank higher in the app store grows exponentially. What it doesn't point out is that organic download growth from ranking higher grows linearly. That means it gets harder and harder to keep your position in the app store unless you support those downloads somehow.

How can apps maintain their app store ranking? All the big co's do the following (starting with the most effective):

* Big ad spend

* Aggressive cross promotion

* Purchasing incentivized installs

* App store search optimization

* App Store features

Now, the story is a little different when you look at the top grossing chart. The reason for this should be obvious - the more money you make, the more you can dump in to ads. More ads means more users means more revenue. None of this is by accident - these companies understand their user acquisition channels extremely well and are constantly looking for new opportunities to spend.

A little more info: How people discover apps by type - http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/503fd59beab8eab44a0...