How Many Downloads Does Your App Need to Reach Top Rankings?

Ever wondered how many daily downloads your app needs to get a chance to reach the top 10 charts? How is breaking into the top 10 different on the App Store than on Google Play? How does this vary from one country to another? With AppTweak’s Market Intelligence features, you can compare the daily downloads required for an app to reach the top charts in any category and country!

Estimate downloads needed for your app to reach top charts

Estimated daily downloads to reach the top charts of the Travel category on Google Play in major European countries.

Got a travel app? To reach the #1 position in the Play Store Travel & Local category in Germany, your app needs to drive almost 8k downloads per day. That’s nearly twice as many as in Spain, where the #1 travel app on Google Play is expected to drive around 4.4k daily downloads.

To better illustrate the kind of insights this feature offers, we compared the downloads needed to reach the top of different categories and country groups. Below are some major takeaways by region and store.

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Downloads needed to reach the top charts in Europe

In general, Germany is the most competitive European country when it comes to the number of daily downloads to reach the top charts on both the App Store and Google Play. Following closely behind as one of the most competitive countries (both stores) is the United Kingdom, which has only been surpassed by Germany in the last few years.

Comparing the number of daily downloads an app needs to reach the top charts of several categories of the App Store and Google Play in major European countries.

Although Germany is nearly the most competitive market in Europe, results still vary across categories. On the App Store, France is the most competitive country in the Social category and the UK takes the lead in the Sports and Health & Fitness categories.

On Google Play, Germany acquires the top spot in the Social, Shopping, and Health & Fitness categories, while Italy is the most competitive in the Sports category.

In the Food & Drinks category on the App Store, Germany and the UK are the most competitive countries. On Google Play, Food & Drink apps in the UK need to drive more downloads to reach the top than in Germany or France.

Comparing the number of daily downloads an app needs to reach the top charts of the Food & Drinks category in the App Store and Google Play in major European countries.

App downloads to reach the top charts in Asia

In Asia, we found that Japan was consistently the most competitive country on the App Store, but India was much more competitive on the Play Store, taking the lead in all categories we examined.

Comparing the number of daily downloads an app needs to reach the top charts of several categories on the App Store and Google Play in major Asian countries.

In all the categories shown above – Education, Finance, Food & Drink, and Health & Fitness – there is only one instance in which either Japan or India was almost surpassed. For an app to make the top 2 spots in the Finance category on the App Store, Korea is only behind Japan by less than 1k downloads.

App downloads to reach the top charts in South America

Brazil is by far the most competitive market in South America across all categories on both the App Store and Play Store.

Comparing the number of daily downloads an app needs to reach the top charts of several categories on the App Store and Google Play in major South American countries.

The number of daily downloads to reach the top charts in any category in Brazil is between 2 to 7 times higher than the second most competitive country in South America on both the App Store and Google Play. When it comes to overall market share, Brazil represents between 50 and 70 percent share of downloads in South America on both the app stores.

If we remove Brazil from the analysis, we find that Colombia is the second leading country in terms of competitiveness on the App Store. A few countries compete for the highest downloads to reach the top on Google Play. For example, in the Shopping category on Android, Colombia, Argentina, and Chile are the top countries in terms of downloads.

Comparing the number of daily downloads an app needs to reach the top charts of the Shopping category on the App Store and Google Play in major South American countries (Brazil excluded).

In the Photography category on the App Store, Colombia is the leader in downloads, with Chile and Peru following closely behind. Photo apps will need less than half as many downloads to reach the top in other countries compared to Colombia. When it comes to Google Play, the most competitive market is still in Colombia, even though Argentina is a very close competitor and falls only slightly behind Colombia for the #1 position.

Comparing the number of daily downloads an app needs to reach the top charts of the Photo & Video category on the App Store and the Photography category on Google Play in major South American countries (Brazil excluded).

App downloads to reach the top charts in the US, Brazil, and India

We then had a look at some very big markets that tend to be more oriented towards the App Store (United States) or Play Store (Brazil and India). As expected, in all categories, we found that the US was the most competitive country on the App Store and India mostly on the Play Store. We did find a few extra insights worth sharing.

Health & Fitness is one of the only categories in which Brazil surpasses India in the number of downloads needed to reach the top charts on Google Play.

Comparing the number of daily downloads an app needs to reach the top charts of the Health & Fitness category on the App Store and Google Play in the US, Brazil, and India.

In the Food & Drinks category, India is by far the most competitive market for the Play Store, requiring apps to have a much higher number of daily downloads to reach an equivalent position compared to Brazil and the US. However, in Brazil, the number of daily downloads your app will need to be 1st or 2nd in that category instead of 5th suddenly shoots up. This sudden increase is mostly due to the app iFood, which takes up 27% of the total downloads in the Food and Drinks category on Android in Brazil.

Comparing the number of daily downloads an app needs to make to reach the top charts of the Food & Drinks category on the App Store and Google Play in the US, Brazil, and India.

When it comes to the Sports category, the Indian market is most competitive. Being #1 in the Play Store Sports category in India requires an estimated 87k daily downloads (vs. 30k in Brazil and 13k in the US). This is mainly due to the major popularity of apps such as Rooter, IPL, and Cricbuzz that occupy top positions.

Comparing the number of daily downloads an app needs to reach the top charts of the Sports category on the App Store and Google Play in the US, Brazil, and India.

What are the most competitive app markets by region & store?

To summarize, here’s the list of countries by continent where mobile apps need the highest amount of daily downloads to reach the top charts in most categories:

Europe:

• The App Store: varies between categories
• Google Play: varies between categories

Asia:

• The App Store: Japan
• Google Play: India

South America:

• The App Store: Brazil
• Google Play: Brazil

If you want to dig deeper into the details, don’t miss out on our Downloads to Top feature in Market Intelligence. We show you the estimated number of daily downloads an app needs in order to reach the top charts in any country and category on both the App Store and Play Store.