Most Popular App Store Keywords During Holiday Season

by Oriane Ineza
Content Marketing Specialist

Last updated on February 19 2024 — 5 min read

The fast-approaching holiday season brings app marketers a chance to entice more app users by promoting seasonal content. To help you uncover trends and take full advantage of the upcoming months, we took a look at last year’s most popular keywords on the App Store during the holiday season.

Read this blog to learn more about the most searched keywords in November and December 2021 among 9 of the largest markets (United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, India, Japan, Singapore, and Korea).

Most popular App Store keywords

The most popular keywords are defined as searches that received the highest possible search volume scores at some point in a year. The volume score is a number between 5 and 100, calculated and directly received from Apple. The higher the search volume, the more popular the keyword and the higher the frequency of searches for that term on the App Store.

In this blog, we define the most popular keywords as the most searched keywords during the 2021 holiday season (November – December 2021). From the list of the 500 most popular keywords, we compared the average keyword volume during the holiday season with the average keyword volume during the rest of the year to identify trending keywords. To help you better understand seasonality trends, we handpicked 30 keywords that relate the most to holiday-related search behavior.

In the United States, people searched for the following holiday-related keywords in the App Store during the 2021 holiday season:

Keyword	Volume (2021 holiday season)
tinder	93
spotify	89
santa tracker	77
afterpay	72
best buy	72
bath and body works	71
shutterfly	69
sleep sounds	69
macys	69
zara	68
nintendo switch parental controls	67
ring	67
watch	67
santa clause call	67
h m	67
shop	67
amazon flex	66
bose connect	66
cricut	66
gopro	66
lego	66
the alexa app echo dot	66
black friday	66
bass booster	66
pintrest	66
to do list	66
old navy	66
rakuten	66
sephora	66
wish	66

In 2021, keywords such as “santa tracker” and “santa clause call” were among the most trending during the holiday season.

Unsurprisingly, every year the keyword “Black Friday” trends the most, as people turn to the app stores to find the best Black Friday deals and offers.

Searches for shopping apps soar

In anticipation of Black Friday and the holiday season, searches for shopping apps soared. People look to shopping apps to score Black Friday deals or find the best gifts for their loved ones. Search volume for retailers like “best buy,” “sephora,” “zara,” “macys” as well as “rakuten,” “wish,” and “bath and body works” grew the most during the holiday season.

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Keywords trends reveal popular holiday gifts

Perhaps more indicative of the holiday season were the many searches for keywords related to gifts that people give or receive during this time. We found tech-related keywords such as “watch,” “bose connect,” “alexa,” “gopro,” “cricut,” and “lego” trending towards the end of the year. Interestingly, we also saw “ring” trending last year. Ring is a smart doorbell, a popular tech gadget that people like to gift during the holiday season. Among other best tech gifts, people opt for GoPro or an Apple Watch and turn to the App Store to download the supporting app.

The keyword “nintendo switch parental controls” also made it to the list with a high search volume, possibly originating from parents who recently bought a Nintendo Switch for their children.

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Holiday season – a busy time of the year

The holiday season is a busy time, so we are not surprised to find the keyword “to do list” among the most searched keywords.

Searches for popular apps like Pinterest and Spotify also trended during this period. People turn to Pinterest for decoration or gift ideas. Spotify launches their very popular “wrapped” campaign at the end of the year. With this campaign, Spotify creates a playlist of users’ most streamed songs over the past year. Each year this campaign gets very popular, as reflected in the keyword volume.

The photobooks app Shutterfly registered more searches during this period, perhaps due to the higher number of personalized photo gifts or greeting cards sent during this time of the year.

Learn about app seasonality trends for the holiday season

Top 500 most popular keywords in 9 of the largest markets

Want to unlock more insights? Have a look at the full list of the 500 most popular keywords during the 2021 holiday season in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, India, Japan, Korea, and Singapore.

Optimize your app to get more traffic in the holiday season

Seasonal events provide a unique opportunity to increase traffic to your app! If you’ve been considering expanding your app or game to other countries, holidays like Black Friday and Christmas might be the right time to launch. Set your app for success by carefully localizing it for your new audience. This is especially important during this time of the year when celebrations can differ greatly from one country to another.

Want to discover the most searched keywords during a specific time of the year? Learn more about our Market Intelligence features and sign up for a 7-day free trial.

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by Oriane Ineza, Content Marketing Specialist

Oriane is a Content Marketing Specialist at AppTweak, creating content for app marketers. She enjoys exploring the world through books, movies, and food.