Since the new Christmas 2022 is arriving, it's the right time to review your app business industry and app marketing condition in the past year and make a new app marketing plan based on your marking research.

We have collected data of the experienced 2021 on the two main app stores, Apple and Google Play, to help app marketers clear the app marketing trends, to dig out the new opportunities, and effective ASO strategies to help them reach their goals.

Apple store and google play data 2021 you need to focus

Apple and Google control more than 95% of the app store market share through iOS and Android, respectively.

As we all know, tens of thousands of developers were building apps and games for the iOS and Google Play platforms every day. In less than five years, both Apple and Google had over one million apps and games available, which generated millions in-app revenue for both companies.

The professional technical teams, as well as their persistent research of the app market ranking algorithm, smart promotion strategy, excellent design and good user experience make a small number of applications and games stand out and win their application success.

What is the most popular app category in Google Play 2021?

According to the latest app marketing research report of 2021, we can easily find something:

• Gaming apps were the most popular app category in the Google Play store, accounting for 13.72% of available apps worldwide;
• Education apps were ranked second with a 9.31% share.

We already shared some effective promotion tips and strategies to help you drive your gaming apps and education apps, to learn more about: How to Win at Match 3 Game Category in App Store or How to Promote Educational Apps for Kids on App Marketing.

Google Play App Store key statistics

• Google Play’s App Store has 2.39 million apps and 442,000 games
• Games make up 15.6% of the Google Play Store
• Education and business apps are second and third most popular categories
• Free apps make up 96.2% of the Google Play Store

Google Play and app monetization

Google Play is the world's largest digital distribution platform for Android apps, providing users with nearly 3.49 million mobile apps to choose from. Most mobile apps on Google Play are available for free. As of March 2021, more than 96% of Android apps can be downloaded without upfront fees, but this does not exclude other mobile app monetization strategies, such as in-app advertising and in-app purchases.

As of April 2021, the global Google Play store's leading Android app ranking based on revenue is mainly composed of game apps, including the mobile version of the popular Battle Royale games PUBG and Clash of Clans.

However, in terms of application revenue, Google Play lags behind its eternal competitor Apple App Store. During the same period, Apple’s own digital store generated $19 billion in mobile application revenue.

What is the most popular Apple App Store categories 2021?

According to the latest app marketing research report of 2021, we can easily find something:

• Games were the most popular iOS app category, accounting for a total of 21.49% of active apps;
• Business apps were the second-most popular category in the Apple App Store with a share of 10.10% of active all apps being business apps. 

Apple App Store key statistics

• Apple’s App Store has 3.6 million apps and 984,000 games
• Games make up 21.8% of the App Store.
• Business and education are the second and third most popular categories
• Free apps make up 92.3% of the Apple App Store

ASO strategies to help you making the most of App Store

4 steps to get your app’s metadata ready for the app growth

• Keyword research to target your potential users
• Take care of your app title, subtitle, description
• Creative design about Icon, screenshots & video to improve conversion rate
• Pay attention to your app ratings and reviews

Keyword research

We discussed about the keyword research already in the past article as: How to Find Target ASO Keywords for Your App with ASO World Keywords Research Tool.

Still confused with your target keywords? Maybe some questions below make you clear about the decision:

• What about your personality?
• What keywords will your users use to express their search intention?
• What about your competitors and their top-ranked keywords on app store?
• How users describe your or competitor’s apps in their reviews?
• Which keywords can describe your app’s functionality and features?
• Which keywords bring your competitors traffic, including paid and organic.

Just try to answer these questions, and practice with keyword analysis tools or platform as Google Trends, Ahrefs, Semrush, Appannie, and so on.

App title, subtitle and description optimization

The app name, app store keywords and subtitle you choose for your app are key elements of your app's discoverability on the App Store. 

What do you need to know about the App title, subtitle, and description in the iOS App Store?

iOS App Store
App Title: The title of your app is the very first line on your App Store product page. It will be bolded and located to the right of your app’s icon.
App Subtitle: The subtitle appears directly beneath the title on your App Store product page. It is also located to the right of your app’s icon.
App Description: Your app’s description will be located beneath its media section (app preview and screenshots), which can be viewed by scrolling down the product page. 

Google Play Store
App Title: Similar to the Apple App Store, the title of your app is the very first line on your Google Play Store product page. It will be bolded and located to the right of the icon.
App Short Description: The Google Play Store doesn’t include a subtitle section. Instead, it gives developers access to a Short Description, which will be located beneath the app media section on your Google Play Store product page and can include up to 50 characters.
App Long Description: The Long Description is viewed by expanding the Short Description. It can include up to 4,000 characters, giving app developers plenty of space to elaborate on app features, brand story, social channel information, etc.

To make sure some questions to help you get a perfect title, subtitle, and description for your App:

• Which are your valuable keywords after keyword research?
• Which popular keywords your competitors used on their product page?
• Who are your target users?
• What about your users’ age, interest, occupation, mobile device, habits?
• What features make your apps or games different from your competitors?

*You can read the article (How to Prepare for New Google Play Metadata Policy Changes) to learn about the metadata optimization detailly.

Creative design: App Icons, Screenshots & Video

The question about how to make the product page more creative must be most attractive topic for App marketers. We talk about this detailed in the past article as : App Icon optimization: A practical guide to boost app conversion rate.

Choose videos and images that grab attention and showcase specific benefits to using your solution, just follow our points below.

How to make your App Icons, Screenshots and Video powerful?

• Choose an app screenshot orientation (horizontal orientation often performs better).
• Go for eye-catching images. Use minimal text and avoid small details that are hard to see.
• Put your strongest image first.
• Follow image size guidelines for iOS and Google Play.

App ratings and reviews

If you’re releasing an application, you must get as early an edge as possible over the next one vying for the same user’s attention.

But in heavily-saturated and highly-competitive environments like the Apple or Google Play stores, why would the user choose to download your app over your direct competitor’s equivalent? How do you utilize features like ratings & reviews to optimize your app, as part of your ASO & growth strategy? Ratings & reviews are crucial to your ASO strategy.

The 2 factors below make App ratings and reviews more important:

• The impact on search visibility with 4~5 ratings;
• User acquisition depends on good review management.

User acquisition depends on good review management
Utilizing ratings & reviews to optimize your app will ultimately help you drive up your user acquisition rate. The better the ratings & reviews, the more trusted your app will be, and the more users will download it.

Most users will look at the average five-star rating, overall score and written reviews before downloading an app - whether that be free or paid for. Combined, these metrics form a good reference point for users deciding whether or not to hit the download button. According to Apptentive, 80% of users check ratings and reviews to determine whether they download an app, and view them as more important than verbal feedback.

The impact on search visibility
The average rating of your app will determine where it will appear and what rank it will be assigned on search results pages. Naturally, if there are few or low-scoring ratings against your app, then this will inevitably affect search visibility - given that major app stores reward more visibility to apps that are highly rated.

Keywords also play a significant role in improving your app’s visibility and user acquisition. If more keywords appear in user reviews - particularly within the Google Play store - the easier it is to rank for those keywords in search traffic. Reviews can increase the exposure of your app to new users and boost the chances of your app being downloaded. It’s advisable to consider keywords when conducting your ASO audit, as the results can be far more significant for your app's ranking.

In Google Play, including your keywords in your responses to user reviews is an opportunity to increase your app’s exposure. ASO has more of an impact on the Play Store than the App Store, so it can help your search visibility, whilst also benefiting your customer engagement in the long term. 

*For ASO beginners, we ever prepared the article (Apple Store Ranking Algorithm Report: Searching List Rules and Searching List Update Time) to explain the App Store ranking algorithm to help you start your relevant works more easier.

Paid service about app ratings and reviews also can be considered. However, make sure the content be natural.

A well-rated app with plenty of positive reviews will be more visible, and increasingly likely to be downloaded. You can also read our articles (ASO Advanced Strategy: How to Reply to App Reviews on App Store&Google Play) to improve your app reviews on App Store and Google Play.

Final thoughts

To prepare for the 2022 ASO strategies and win your apps and games business, your efforts on the data research and ASO detailed techs will worth your time. Never miss out on new year’s opportunities to boost your app’s downloads again!