Apple has redesigned its App Store on its publicly iOS 11 release. Among the available updates, the company features the daily "App of the Day" and "Game of the Day".
With these two, Apple’s editorial team picks two iOS apps to recommend to users.
According to a research by Apptopia, being featured as the App or Game of the Day can give a huge amount of download boost.The report found that apps in these featured spots can have a big boost, with some being better than others.
On average, apps received a 2,172 percent download boost if featured, and games can see a 963 percent increase.
The rapid increase in downloads also impacted their rankings. Apptopia found that 19 apps went from unranked to being ranked in the overall charts. Some of the apps jumped more than 1,000 rank spots thanks to getting featured. If the apps had rankings in the overall chart, their rank will jump at an average of 137 spots.
As a part of Apple's new editorial strategy to improve app discovery, instead of just offering app collections and top charts, it upgraded its App Store to include articles about apps, interviews with creators, curated lists, how to guides, and more.
Apple wants to make it easier for users to find apps to try, and increase downloads for app developers. And from the report, being featured can indeed give apps and games a very significant increase in exposure.
However, Apptopia's COO Jonathan Kay criticized Apple’s selection, noting that many of the recommendations have not been from smaller developers, but rather bigger brands that don't actually need the extra promotions.
For example, Apple has featured Starbucks, NBC and CBS, EA's The Simpsons: Tapped Out, Microsoft’s Minecraft, Glu Mobile’s Deer Hunter 2017, and others.
In addition to that, Kay pointed out that at least half the apps featured were making at least $10,000 in revenue per day. What this means, with "App of the Day" and "Game of the Day", Apple is able to increase its own revenue rapidly, thanks to its cut of app sales and in-app purchases, but is also literally killing small apps, putting nails to their coffins by making them even less discoverable.
However, the impacts of getting App of the Day status aren’t as notable if the app is already well-known. For example, when Starbucks was the App of the Day, Apptopia estimated that it only received a small amount of downloads.
"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," said Kay.
Smaller developers still do have an advantage in the App Store, although much less, as they are often rounded up in the new collections and daily lists.
To come up with its conclusion and report, Apptopia said that it had studied 30 days of featured paid apps/games and non-paid apps/games. However, what Apptopia's report is concluding here, may not show how the impact will last after the apps and games are highlighted.