Lazy ASOWhat actually gets a new app to the top of App Store search
Updated 5 November 2026
We scanned 350,712 App Store searches in 87 countries and followed 82,818 apps under six months old. 28% of those searches had a new app in the top 10, and 39% of the new apps there had zero ratings. Counting all new apps under 100 ratings down to #200, a name that starts with the search reached the top 10 in 5–10% of cases, and "Brand: search" after a colon in 1–3%, about the same as no search in the name at all.
Difficulty scores are guesses. We counted.
One result page for every search in Apple's official lists, in 87 countries. A new app means released in the last six months.
New apps are not locked out. 97,286 results (28%) had one in the top 10. Of the new apps in a top 10, 67% had fewer than 10 ratings and 39% had none.
The name decides, and where the search sits in it
All new apps with under 100 ratings, counted down to #200 in 592 result pages from 12 countries, not just the ones visible at the top. 84% of new apps named with a search sit below #25.
| Name | Top 10 chance |
|---|---|
| Starts with the search, then more words | 5–10% |
| Search elsewhere in the name | about 3% |
| "Brand: search", after a separator | 1–3% |
| Search not in the name | 2–3% |
"Brand: keyword" does about as much as leaving the keyword out. Put the search first.
A name few others have wins
New apps with 0 ratings that start their name with the search, counted down to #200. How many other apps in the results start with it too:
| Other apps starting with it | Top 10 chance |
|---|---|
| 0 | 20–40% |
| 1 or 2 | about 20% |
| 3 or 4 | about 10% |
| 5 or more | about 3% |
These are averages across result pages: your real chance depends on the search and on the leader's ratings. Apps that have the search mid-name lower it too.
What barely matters
Things people spend weeks on. New apps in the top 25, under 100 ratings.
| Factor | Result |
|---|---|
| Number of screenshots | 3 or 4 screenshots: 12% in the top 3. 9 or more: 8% |
| How recently you updated | Under 2 weeks to over 4 months: 9.4% to 10.7% |
| App age, 1 to 6 months | 37% to 42% in the top 10, flat |
Method
Scan finished 6 October 2026 and covers 99.99% of official searches. Positions come from the iTunes Search API, top 25 per search. To count the apps below that, we pulled full result pages down to #200, with a new measurement of every non-brand search under way. Chances are rounded to what those measurements agree on. Apple's own apps and pre-orders are excluded.