Where App Store attention goes: 79 niches, 13,207 apps
We pulled up to 200 App Store results for 79 everyday app niches, from habit trackers to invoice makers, and measured how ratings are spread among them. The short answer: attention pools at the very top, most apps are almost invisible, and the apps people see first are old.
Key findings
- In the median niche, the top 3 apps hold 63% of all ratings, and the top 10 hold 88%.
- In 61 of 79 niches the top 3 apps hold more than half of all ratings; in 21 a single app does.
- In the median niche, 42% of apps have fewer than 10 ratings, and 18% have none.
- The first 10 results a searcher sees are old: their median age is 8.4 years.
- About 27% of the apps in a niche launched in the last 12 months, yet in 41 of 79 niches none of them reaches the first 10 results.
- Only 2.6% of apps charge upfront; 14% have not shipped an update in over two years.
Attention is concentrated at the top
Ratings are the most visible trace of use that the App Store makes public. Across 79 niches they follow a steep curve: a few apps collect most of them and the long tail shares what is left. The median niche gives 36% of all its ratings to one app.
Most concentrated niches (top 3 share of ratings)
Least concentrated niches
New apps rarely reach the first screen
Roughly one app in four in a niche is less than a year old, so new launches are not rare. What is rare is seeing them: the first 10 results are dominated by apps with years of history, and in 41 of 79 niches not a single app from the last 12 months is among them.
Niches where new apps do reach the first 10 results
- gift tracker 5/10
- home inventory 5/10
- fuel log 3/10
- packing list 3/10
- subscription tracker 3/10
- anxiety tracker 2/10
- birthday reminder 2/10
- countdown timer 2/10
- gym log 2/10
- movie tracker 2/10
- shared album 2/10
- study planner 2/10
All 79 niches
Search queries exactly as typed into the US App Store. Shares are of all ratings among the first results returned (up to 200 per query).
Download the data (CSV, 79 niches)| Search query | Top 3 share | Top 10 share | Apps with <10 ratings | New apps in first 10 | Median age of first 10 | Our guide |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| anniversary tracker | 87% | 94% | 36% | 0 | 9.1 yrs | |
| anxiety tracker | 61% | 85% | 31% | 2 | 3.8 yrs | |
| app blocker | 52% | 73% | 41% | 1 | 4.6 yrs | guide |
| appointment scheduler | 61% | 90% | 35% | 0 | 10.3 yrs | guide |
| baby names | 78% | 98% | 69% | 1 | 11.8 yrs | |
| baby tracker | 70% | 91% | 63% | 0 | 10.5 yrs | guide |
| birthday reminder | 62% | 83% | 58% | 2 | 7 yrs | |
| book tracker | 92% | 98% | 59% | 0 | 5.5 yrs | guide |
| breathing exercises | 88% | 98% | 52% | 1 | 9.6 yrs | |
| budget app | 86% | 97% | 30% | 0 | 8.7 yrs | guide |
| calendar planner | 54% | 77% | 27% | 0 | 9.5 yrs | |
| calorie counter | 61% | 88% | 38% | 0 | 8.8 yrs | |
| car maintenance | 73% | 96% | 67% | 1 | 4.5 yrs | |
| chess trainer | 91% | 98% | 26% | 1 | 9 yrs | |
| client booking | 75% | 95% | 52% | 1 | 10.1 yrs | guide |
| cocktail recipes | 80% | 91% | 61% | 0 | 6.3 yrs | |
| coloring book | 47% | 73% | 13% | 0 | 9.8 yrs | |
| countdown timer | 40% | 68% | 36% | 2 | 10.3 yrs | |
| couple app | 89% | 96% | 22% | 1 | 4.2 yrs | |
| crypto portfolio | 59% | 88% | 17% | 0 | 8.3 yrs | |
| cycling tracker | 42% | 76% | 15% | 0 | 13.7 yrs | |
| diary | 33% | 66% | 31% | 0 | 6.1 yrs | |
| expense tracker | 50% | 84% | 46% | 1 | 10.9 yrs | guide |
| family tree | 55% | 91% | 54% | 1 | 7.9 yrs | |
| fasting tracker | 65% | 91% | 47% | 0 | 6 yrs | |
| file manager | 88% | 98% | 34% | 0 | 8.4 yrs | |
| flashcards | 84% | 94% | 37% | 1 | 7.7 yrs | guide |
| focus timer | 44% | 76% | 52% | 1 | 7.6 yrs | guide |
| fuel log | 84% | 99% | 56% | 3 | 4.5 yrs | |
| gift tracker | 35% | 81% | 39% | 5 | 1.3 yrs | |
| golf tracker | 35% | 66% | 27% | 0 | 12.3 yrs | |
| gratitude journal | 65% | 89% | 36% | 1 | 7.8 yrs | |
| grocery list | 67% | 89% | 52% | 0 | 13.7 yrs | guide |
| guitar chords | 49% | 80% | 31% | 0 | 11.4 yrs | |
| gym log | 48% | 84% | 32% | 2 | 10.1 yrs | |
| habit tracker | 55% | 86% | 45% | 0 | 5.5 yrs | guide |
| hiking app | 65% | 87% | 33% | 0 | 12.6 yrs | |
| home inventory | 65% | 83% | 75% | 5 | 2.9 yrs | |
| invoice maker | 57% | 88% | 45% | 1 | 7.8 yrs | guide |
| journal | 49% | 73% | 21% | 0 | 8.6 yrs | |
| meal planner | 70% | 92% | 50% | 1 | 9.2 yrs | guide |
| medication reminder | 85% | 97% | 59% | 1 | 7.2 yrs | |
| meditation app | 58% | 82% | 15% | 0 | 10.6 yrs | |
| mood tracker | 65% | 86% | 57% | 1 | 6 yrs | |
| movie tracker | 74% | 89% | 46% | 2 | 4.7 yrs | |
| net worth tracker | 80% | 97% | 74% | 1 | 6.3 yrs | guide |
| note app | 82% | 96% | 13% | 0 | 8.9 yrs | |
| packing list | 88% | 99% | 73% | 3 | 2.2 yrs | |
| password manager | 73% | 91% | 59% | 0 | 8.5 yrs | |
| period tracker | 67% | 84% | 44% | 0 | 11 yrs | |
| pet care | 55% | 86% | 33% | 1 | 5.6 yrs | |
| photo cleaner | 55% | 86% | 45% | 1 | 4.2 yrs | |
| plant care | 68% | 89% | 54% | 1 | 5.5 yrs | |
| pomodoro timer | 44% | 85% | 55% | 1 | 9.1 yrs | guide |
| pregnancy app | 59% | 81% | 42% | 0 | 11.4 yrs | |
| reading tracker | 80% | 95% | 59% | 1 | 6.1 yrs | guide |
| receipt scanner | 65% | 90% | 43% | 0 | 7.8 yrs | |
| recipe app | 51% | 80% | 33% | 0 | 9.9 yrs | guide |
| running tracker | 44% | 76% | 19% | 0 | 14.4 yrs | |
| screen time | 33% | 75% | 41% | 1 | 4.6 yrs | guide |
| shared album | 69% | 93% | 20% | 2 | 7.7 yrs | |
| sleep tracker | 35% | 74% | 38% | 0 | 9.9 yrs | guide |
| step counter | 94% | 98% | 42% | 0 | 10.9 yrs | |
| study planner | 56% | 87% | 38% | 2 | 6.9 yrs | guide |
| subscription tracker | 71% | 97% | 64% | 3 | 1.4 yrs | guide |
| symptom tracker | 81% | 93% | 51% | 0 | 5.7 yrs | |
| task manager | 39% | 75% | 47% | 1 | 8.9 yrs | |
| tattoo app | 96% | 99% | 23% | 0 | 8.2 yrs | |
| time tracker | 39% | 73% | 34% | 0 | 9.5 yrs | guide |
| to do list | 69% | 89% | 41% | 0 | 10.1 yrs | |
| travel planner | 79% | 97% | 47% | 1 | 7.8 yrs | |
| vocabulary builder | 63% | 95% | 45% | 0 | 11 yrs | guide |
| wallpaper app | 30% | 59% | 13% | 0 | 6.4 yrs | |
| water reminder | 51% | 88% | 51% | 0 | 9.5 yrs | |
| weather app | 57% | 85% | 10% | 0 | 12.8 yrs | |
| wine cellar | 59% | 94% | 60% | 1 | 7.6 yrs | |
| wishlist app | 95% | 99% | 46% | 0 | 4.5 yrs | |
| word game | 21% | 51% | 3% | 0 | 9.1 yrs | |
| workout tracker | 52% | 74% | 31% | 0 | 8.6 yrs |
What it means for app makers
- Store search alone rarely gives a new app its first users: the first screen is held by apps that have been there for years.
- A less crowded niche is a real advantage. Where the top 3 hold under half of the ratings, a newcomer competes with many small apps instead of one giant.
- Traffic from outside the store, such as search engines, communities and directories, matters most at launch, before ratings pile up.
Method
- Source: the public iTunes Search API, US storefront, software only, captured on 2026-09-25.
- For each of 79 niche queries we asked for 200 results in the order Apple returns them; the API gave 157 to 200 per query (median 188): 14,690 results, 13,207 unique apps.
- Attention is measured by App Store rating count. It is a proxy: it counts people who rated, not everyone who uses an app.
- Shares are computed within each niche, then we report the median niche so one huge category cannot skew the picture.
- «New» means first released less than 12 months before the capture date. Age is counted from the first release date.
How to cite
Free to quote, and to embed the charts, with a link to this page.
Censuus (2026). Where App Store attention goes: 79 niches, 13,207 apps. https://censuus.com/blog/app-store-niche-attention-2026
Download the data (CSV, 79 niches)Frequently asked questions
How concentrated is the App Store?
In the median niche of 79 studied, the top 3 apps hold 63% of all ratings and the top 10 hold 88%.
How many ratings does a typical App Store app have?
Few. In the median niche 42% of apps have fewer than 10 ratings and 18% have none at all.
Can a new app reach the top of App Store search?
Rarely. The first 10 results have a median age of 8.4 years, and in 41 of 79 niches no app launched in the last year is among them.
Where does the data come from?
From the public iTunes Search API, US store, up to 200 results for each of 79 queries, captured on 2026-09-25. Censuus did the collection and analysis.
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