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iOS 11’s new ‘App of the Day’ feature can rocket downloads by over 2,000%

New data is out today from Apptopia on how iOS 11‘s App Store and its new app of the day and game of the day features are influencing downloads. With an app of the day feature, the company found a boost in downloads of up to 2,172%, while games saw an increase of up to 963%.

Spotted by TechCrunch, Apptopia did a 30-day analysis of downloads since the new daily features have been live. An average of features from weekdays, weekends, paid apps/games, and non-paid apps/games saw downloads jump 1,747% for apps, with games downloads being boosted an average of 792%.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

  • Apps received a higher download boost than games
  • Weekday features are more effective than those on weekends
  • Free apps/games were downloaded more than paid apps/games

Other details about the analysis include that 5 of the 30 apps studied were paid, 11 of the 30 games were paid, 3 of the 5 paid apps were featured on a weekend, while 4 of the 11 paid games were on a weekend.

Apptopia notes that established apps like Starbucks saw a much lower boost in downloads, for multiple reasons.

Apps that were already ranking within the top 20 of their respective category before being featured, only received an average download boost of 44%. For games ranking within the top 20 of the Games category, it was 37%. This begs the question of whether or not Apple really cares about discovery for independent shops or lesser known apps. Apptopia Founder & COO Jonathan Kay dives deeper into that question here.

What is really cool to see is how powerful being featured is for independent developers.

19 apps went from unranked overall to being ranked somewhere in the overall charts. This means that some of these jumped more than 1,000 rank spots.

Another controversial way to boost app exposure is with Apple’s Search Ads. One of the biggest complaints of this program has been ad relevancy. Just last week, Apple expanded Search Ads to three more countries.

Check out the full report from Apptopia here.


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Avatar for Michael Potuck Michael Potuck

Michael is an editor for 9to5Mac. Since joining in 2016 he has written more than 3,000 articles including breaking news, reviews, and detailed comparisons and tutorials.