Top of the App Store Pops
Last night, I sent out a tweet/skeet/toot/thread before I went to bed and awoke to a bunch of responses that I figured was worth spelling out here (versus having to reply to everyone with the same basic thing across four different networks – someone please end this madness). So, I noted that the top of the App Store charts was interesting at the moment compared to what it has been in recent years.1 That is to say: whereas various apps from Meta, Google, and ByteDance (with a few other mainstays mixed in – Snap, etc) have historically dominated these charts, now there are a handful of new apps which have shaken things up.
That message lacked a key framing though: that these charts aren't just based on pure downloads and instead are algorithmically constructed. No one outside of Apple and Google knows the exact equations that flavor the ranking, but at a high level, it seems pretty clear that download rate acceleration is a key factor versus sheer volume. That is to say, an app can chart by having a bunch of people suddenly start to download it, even if more people overall are downloading an older app.
Anyway, this matters because it doesn't mean that DeepSeek, an app based off of the Chinese-developed AI model of the same name, is the most popular app ever despite its current place atop the charts. Your mom probably isn't downloading it. Just as last week, your mom probably wasn't downloading Xiaohongshu ('Little Red Book'), incidentally another Chinese app that rose to the top of the charts. But it is still interesting because again, the mainstays have in recent years dominated these charts. Sure, new entrants would rise (and fall) from time-to-time but it was almost always some order of: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Threads, TikTok, CapCut, YouTube, Gmail, Google Maps, etc.2 Right now, there is only a single app from Meta (Threads) and one from Google (Google) in the top 10.3
Instead, we have the aforementioned DeepSeek, ChatGPT, Paramount+, Temu, Fox Sports, Bluesky, ReelShort, and VPN rounding out the top 10. It's pretty easy to see why each of these has risen: interest in AI, interest in sports around the NFL playoffs, interest in Twitter-like social networks given the Xitter situation, and yes, the TikTok ban.
The latter in particular is altering the charts because while the TikTok ban itself may have only lasted a handful of hours, Apple (and Google) still have not allowed any app from ByteDance to be listed back on the App Store in the US. Hence, ReelShort and handful of other, similar apps rising the charts as TikTok replacements. And also hence the rise of VPN apps to try to use TikTok (which again, you don't actually need anymore, but you did for a bit).
While that situation is decidedly unnatural, the other apps feel like good, natural reactions to trends. And after years of relative app stagnation, it's good to see that people are seemingly open to downloading and trying new services again. The rise of the AI-focused apps certainly mirrors my own experience. The rise of Temu, less so. Anyway, just some further context so I can link to this post in response rather than copying and pasting some version of this over and over again on different networks – which itself is mostly the result of said Xitter situation.
M.G. Siegler
Update: As Riley Testut notes on Threads, the current surge of VPN apps could also have something to do with the ban on porn sites (for kids) in some southern states in the US. When TikTok was actually banned for a few hours, VPN apps were all over the top 20, now there are just a couple, and again, you no longer need a VPN to access TikTok in the US (and it wouldn't help you download it unless you switched your App Store location, which is a huge pain in the ass -- as I can attest, living in the UK).
1 By this I mean the free app chart for the US.
2 Though yes, yet another Chinese app, Temu, was the most-downloaded app last year, per the chart Apple puts out at the end of the year.
3 The fact that Google's Google app keeps doing well is interesting. For a while, it was the only way to use Gemini on iOS, but now they have their own dedicated app for their AI service.