Over 3,000 apps appeared on the main App Store page in 2019. Getting featured on the Today Tab is the dream of every mobile app developer, as it can make an app or game popular overnight and increase downloads by 700%.

To help the mobile business community get a better understanding of trends in the App Store’s Today Tab, we have conducted research powered by AppFollow App Store Featured Tool to find out which apps and games Apple’s editors gave preference to in 2019.

We have analyzed 3,167 apps and games which appeared on the App Store main page across the globe between January and December 2019. We have gone over the main App Store tabs, including: App of the Day, Game of the Day, Stories, and Collections.

Some questions we posed

• Which app categories get more visibility in the App Store?
• Which monetization model can help developers appear on the main page?
• What average rating should an app have to get editors’ and users’ attention?

Key findings [Infographic]

The infographic below summarizes the key findings of our research, but you will learn even more if you read on.

Let’s have a closer look at the patterns we found when we analyzed the most featured apps and games across the globe in 2019.

2019 Top Featured Apps by Category

• Across featured Tabs, Collections, and Stories, 53% of placements were occupied by apps and 47% by games.
• Apps appeared more frequently in the App Store Collections than games — 61% vs 39%.
• Stories provided an almost 50/50 split with 48% of placements occupied by games and 52% by apps.

• Apps from the following categories were featured most in the App Store: Education, Health & Fitness, Photo & Video, and Entertainment.
• Action, Adventure, Role Playing, Puzzle, and Arcade games were given a lot of visibility in the App Store as well.

Let’s explore which apps appeared the most number of times on the App Store main page in 2019.

Top featured games

Fortnite, Asphalt 9: Legends, Sky: Children of the Light, Archero, and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite are the gaming apps that were given the most visibility by the App Store editors across all countries in the past 12 months.

• Fortnite was featured a record 1,220 times during 2019.

• Candy Crush Friends Saga appeared the most number of times in the Game of the Day Tab, while Fortnite and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite won in the Stories section.
• All of the above mentioned top featured games have an average rating of 4.6 or higher and they have in-app purchases.

Top featured apps

As for non-gaming apps, Photo & Video was the leading category in 2019, with VSCO, Infiltr, Enlight Pixaloop, and Darkroom among the top featured apps.

• VSCO was featured in the App Store more times than any other app — 673 times.

• VSCO, Infiltr, and Darkroom were the leaders in Collections and Stories.
• The only app from the Health & Fitness category in the top featured apps list was Sweat.
• VSCO has the lowest rating among all of the top featured apps and games — 4.4.

Monetization Models of the Top Apps

• 59% of all featured apps and games have in-app purchases, and 21.5% are paid apps.
• As many as 71% of featured games have IAPs, and only 2.5% are free games.
• The share of featured games with in-app purchases increased by 30% compared to 2018.
• As for non-gaming apps, 48% of them have IAPs and 34.5% are free apps.
• The number of free apps featured on the App Store main page has decreased by 10% compared to 2018.

Featured Apps and Games Average Rating

• 46% of featured apps and games have an average rating of 4.6 to 5.0.
• 23% of featured apps and games have an average rating between 4.4 and 4.6.
• 30% of featured apps and games have an average rating lower than 4.0.

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The Apple editors take many factors into consideration when picking apps for the App Store main page. As we can see from analyzing over 3,000 apps and games, such aspects as the monetization model and average rating can play an important role in the editor’s decision as well.

Don't let bad ratings wreck your hard work. See what happens when app rating is low.

We hope that our research provides a comprehensive overview of trending topics in the app industry, and how monitoring apps that were featured across different geos can help you find a way to improve your app business.

Want your app to be featured on the main App Store's page? Check out our step by step guide or fill out Get featured on the App Store form.