As you can see, Android applications significantly exceed the Apple numbers and, the overall index of presented apps reached more than 1.5 million of new releases last year. In other words, the numbers have increased by 17% compared to the previous years, what caused a momentous growth in ASO since 2014.

On the contrary, iOS developers released only 755K of new apps in 2017. That's a significant decrease by 29% if to be exact, or the very first drop since the App Store launched in 2008.

Thus, evidently, the trend shows there is a numbers' hike in mobile applications released from year to year.

As of March 2018, the percentage of applications downloaded from the Google Play catalogue was 135% higher than the one in the App Store. However, in the previous quarter, this gap was almost eliminated and differed from one another only by 10 points. Moreover, Apple managed to catch up with Google in just 3 months.

Thus we can state, that the first quarter of 2018 was a record term for the number of downloads for both the Apple and Google Play Stores. The total amount of applications downloaded from two stores reached 27.5 billion, what is an excellent demonstration of a steadily growing mobile app demand regardless of platform. This is a 22% increase over the same period if compared to the last year.

Why is Search Optimization so important?

1. The main idea of Search Optimization is to offer the most substantial amount of users. According to Apple, 65% of consumers download the app they've discovered via the search engine. Have a look at the App Store bottom bar: search icon occupies 20% of the entire space, which makes it one of the essential sources for customers and developers.
2. Users coming from search queries are more loyal than those who come through paid ads.
3. According to Appsflyer, customers acquired through search have a 150% higher retention rate than users obtained through paid commercials.

App Store optimization takes about several hours of work before the release and costs almost nothing, when at the same time, it drives relevant customers to your app.

So, if the Search Optimisation provides me with up to 65% of Store visibility, does it mean I should only focus on it?

Not precisely: everything depends on your app type. If you release a new messenger — you'll definitely struggle with search traffic, as most users will look for specific brands by their names, like Facebook or Viber.

On the contrary, if you have news, music, or a dating app, you have way more potential to gain your share of search traffic (as there'll mostly be general queries).

What are the types of applications developers create?
Alternatively, the question might sound as what categories are the most popular?

As you might have guessed, games are ones of the most popular categories. That is why Apple has recently moved them into a top-level category in the Store, as well as why Google followed that.

An interesting fact to note: Health and Fitness have been named a #1 application type for the first quarter in iOS in 2018 when Android owners preferred games and services for entertainment.

The only parameter both Stores agreed on is the time spent in the applications which are about 3 hours a day (according to App Annie estimates).

Summarizing the above, we come to the following conclusions:

• App Store and Google Play search provide a significant amount of relevant traffic. Therefore ASO is a must have for any app developer or marketer.
• Your search potential depends on your app type: some may need an additional distribution channel to raise its visibility and overall brand recognition.
• Store Search provides you with no-cost traffic since the amount of time required for the ASO metadata set-up is driven to a minimum (when done on a regular basis).