App Store Turnover by Category Pt. 2

April 21, 2013

Yesterday I took a look at the turnover and composition of the Top 400 grossing iPhone chart by category which is, unsurprisingly, dominated by games. 75% of the top 400 grossing apps are games. I thought today I would drill down deeper into games and look at which sub-genres are getting the most traction and which have the most staying power. Pretty much the same format as yesterday. Again I’m looking at April 20, 2012 versus April 20, 2013.

You’ll probably notice straightaway that the number of games in each category is much greater than than total number of games in the top 400. Should be double in fact. That’s because each game is allowed to classify itself in two separate sub-genres. Just another little advantage games have over the other apps on the store. Each game can appear in as many as 4 top charts (overall, games category, sub-genre 1, sub-genre 2), while the rest of the apps can only appear in 2 (overall, primary category).

The first thing that struck me about this year’s composition versus last are the gains that were made in cards, casino, dice and trivia. Seems to me this almost certainly points to a shift in demographics among iPhone users.

Next, the turnover numbers are pretty consistent with what we saw for games, especially when we look at the turnover numbers by category where the larger sample sizes smooth everything out.

Category Top 400 Overall Top 400
April 2012 April 2013 Diff New new in category
Qty % Qty % Qty % Qty % Qty %
Action Games 67 25.8% 67 22.6% 0 0.0%

47 70.1% 220 55.0%
Adventure Games 62 23.8% 69 23.2% 7 11.3%

44 63.8% 221 55.2%
Arcade Games 38 14.6% 53 17.8% 15 39.5%

41 77.4% 217 54.2%
Board Games 9 3.5% 11 3.7% 2 22.2%

8 72.7% 196 49.0%
Card Games 11 4.2% 35 11.8% 24 218.2%

26 74.3% 244 61.0%
Casino Games 14 5.4% 29 9.8% 15 107.1%

18 62.1% 238 59.5%
Dice Games 1 0.4% 3 1.0% 2 200.0%

2 66.7% 196 49.0%
Educational Games 5 1.9% 4 1.3% -1 -20.0%

2 50.0% 245 61.3%
Family Games 28 10.8% 30 10.1% 2 7.1%

18 60.0% 214 53.5%
Kids Games 6 2.3% 6 2.0% 0 0.0%

5 83.3% 249 62.3%
Music Games 2 0.8% 3 1.0% 1 50.0%

3 100.0% 221 55.2%
Puzzle Games 30 11.5% 42 14.1% 12 40.0%

25 59.5% 238 59.5%
Racing Games 12 4.6% 12 4.0% 0 0.0%

11 91.7% 214 53.5%
Role Playing Games 76 29.2% 64 21.5% -12 -15.8%

46 71.9% 237 59.2%
Simulation Games 66 25.4% 72 24.2% 6 9.1%

50 69.4% 228 57.0%
Sports Games 16 6.2% 25 8.4% 9 56.2%

21 84.0% 186 46.5%
Strategy Games 57 21.9% 46 15.5% -11 -19.3%

30 65.2% 228 57.0%
Trivia Games 3 1.2% 7 2.4% 4 133.3%

5 71.4% 288 72.0%
Word Games 14 5.4% 16 5.4% 2 14.3%

7 43.8% 240 60.0%
Total 260 – 297 – 409 68.9% 4320 56.8%

Strategy and Role Playing games were the big losers, giving up 23 slots in the top 400. Role Playing games lost their crown as category leaders to Simulation games in 2012 but still represent a pretty healthy chunk of top 400 games at 21.5%.

If you’re looking to target the game category with the largest representation in the top 400 then Simulation, Adventure, and Action games are where it’s at. Over 20% of the games in the top 400 categorize themselves in one of these categories. On the other hand, you may want to avoid Kids, Education, Dice, and Music. It likely that users would first look in categories like Education and Music to find these apps first. Except Dice. Apparently noone likes dice games. The rest of the game categories breakdown like this:

  • Simulation Games – 24.2%

  • Adventure Games – 23.2%

  • Action Games – 22.6%

  • Role Playing Games – 21.5%

  • Arcade Games – 17.8%

  • Strategy Games – 15.5%

  • Puzzle Games – 14.1%

  • Card Games – 11.8%

  • Family Games – 10.1%

  • Casino Games – 9.8%

  • Sports Games – 8.4%

  • Word Games – 5.4%

  • Racing Games – 4.0%

  • Board Games – 3.7%

  • Trivia Games – 2.4%

  • Kids Games – 2.0%

  • Educational Games – 1.3%

  • Dice Games – 1.0%

  • Music Games – 1.0%

Next I looked at turnover. Yesterday we discovered that turnover for the entire games category was 66% for last year. That is, 66% of the apps in the top 400 grossing games chart were not present in April 2012. If we look at the sub-genres, the turnover numbers are a little smaller, but I’m guessing that’s because we’re looking at the same size fish in a smaller pond.

Except for Trivia games. I’ve not personally played a lot of trivia games, but I imagine that unless you’re somehow updating your app with new questions and answers, that your game is going to get stale pretty quick and send the trivia fans back to the store for a new fix. The lesson here for trivia game developers that want to remain on top of the charts is to keep your content fresh!

  • Trivia Games – 72.0%
  • Kids Games – 62.3%
  • Educational Games – 61.3%
  • Card Games – 61.0%
  • Word Games – 60.0%
  • Casino Games – 59.5%
  • Puzzle Games – 59.5%
  • Role Playing Games – 59.2%
  • Simulation Games – 57.0%
  • Strategy Games – 57.0%
  • Adventure Games – 55.2%
  • Music Games – 55.2%
  • Action Games – 55.0%
  • Arcade Games – 54.2%
  • Family Games – 53.5%
  • Racing Games – 53.5%
  • Board Games – 49.0%
  • Dice Games – 49.0%
  • Sports Games – 46.5%

Finally, if you’re looking to target a segment with the best chance of hitting the top 400 *and* a category with a somewhat lower amount of turnover then Arcade and Action games give you the best chance to do that. These two categories represent around 20% of the top overall games but have only seen about 55% turnover since 2012.