App Store downloads are on the decline, while the cost of acquiring loyal users is increasing, according to the new monthly figures from mobile app marketing firm Fiksu.
The company's App Store index measures the average aggregate daily download volume of the top 200 free iPhone apps in the US.
For the month of April It shows app downloads continuing to fall to a daily average of 4.23 million after a considerable January boom and then a sharp drop last month following Apple banning bot farms.
Meanwhile, Fiksu posits that increased competition in the social networking and gaming categories caused mobile marketing costs to slightly increase in April, leading to a rise in the cost per loyal user rate to $1.46.
Downward trajectory
"April's continued downward trajectory of app downloads was expected, as no major events sparked discovery during the month," explained Fiksu CEO Micah Adler.
"Additionally, app marketers continued to scale back their use of robotic install tactics in response to Apple's policy on third-party marketing services," Adler continued, referring to Apple's crackdown on the use of bot farms to increase an app's standing in App Store rankings.
"However, we observed more aggressive advertising spending as marketers moved out of the first quarter lull and began to seek new opportunities to compete for rank especially in the dynamic social networking and games categories, which experienced volatility during the month."
You can see Fiksu's research, which is generated from more than 21 billion mobile app actions and more than 280 million downloads - here.
Data & Research
Related Articles
News
Feb 28th, 2017
CPMs are falling on Android and iOS but users aren't sticking to new apps for long
Top Stories
Feature
May 17th, 2024
New release roundup: The best new mobile games from a battle royale to a console classic remake
Feature
May 16th, 2024
Behind the scenes: How adding sandwich offers to an idle merge game boosted three metrics at once
Events
Digital Dragons | Europe | May 19th |
GamesBeat Summit 2024 | North America | May 20th |
Mobidictum Meetup Tallinn May 2024 | Europe | May 21st |
Nordic Game Spring 2024 | Nordic | May 21st |
Impact 2024 - Indie Games | May 23rd | |
Morocco Gaming Expo | Africa | May 24th |
MomoCon 2024 | North America | May 24th |
Unreal Fest Gold Coast 2024 | Australasia | May 29th |
Popular Stories
Feature
May 14th, 2024
53 top mobile games in soft launch: Squad Busters, Battle Guys: Royale, Plants vs. Zombies 3, LEGO Hill Climb Adventures, and more
Feature
May 13th, 2024
Hot Five: Dubai's new Gaming Visa, April's mobile game charts, and Xbox studio closures
Interview
May 13th, 2024