We ran our ASO Checker on the top 50 free apps in 20 US App Store categories: 1,000 listings in total. Most top apps get the basics right. Far fewer use the tools Apple added to help apps get found and chosen.
Games lead at 28%. Outside games it is 11.4%, and in Finance and Books just 4%.
Games are the exception at 52%. In the Medical category it is 2%. Events can appear in App Store search and on the Today, Games and Apps tabs, so most top apps leave that visibility unused.
The median title is 24 characters. Games are the most brand-only: a median of 16 characters, with 60% below 22.
The subtitle is one of the text fields Apple names as a search ranking input, together with the title and the keyword field.
Among games it is 42%. A repeated word adds no new search coverage.
The median is 7 of a possible 10, and only 13.5% use all 10. No game in the sample used all 10.
The median is 5 languages. English-only listings are most common in Finance (72%), Food & Drink (70%), Sports and News (66% each).
iPad visitors then see iPhone screenshots instead of the app on their own device.
“Bug fixes and performance improvements” is still the default for half of the top apps, even though 88.3% updated in the last 30 days.
10.5% of top apps score below 65. Photo & Video has the highest median (88) and Medical the lowest (74).
Share of the 1,000 listings that meet each basic, from most to least common.
Share of all 1,000 apps. 10.5% have no subtitle at all.
Top 50 free apps per category, sorted by median ASO Checker score.
| Category | Median score | Title 22+ chars | Preview video | In-App Event | English only |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Photo & Video | 88 | 64% | 30% | 50% | 12% |
| Health & Fitness | 87.5 | 74% | 14% | 36% | 26% |
| Shopping | 87 | 86% | 10% | 28% | 44% |
| Entertainment | 85.5 | 68% | 12% | 44% | 20% |
| Education | 85 | 66% | 14% | 24% | 42% |
| Music | 85 | 64% | 12% | 30% | 18% |
| Games | 84 | 40% | 28% | 52% | 24% |
| Productivity | 83 | 44% | 8% | 26% | 14% |
| Finance | 82.5 | 70% | 4% | 18% | 72% |
| Navigation | 82.5 | 64% | 16% | 18% | 36% |
| Sports | 82.5 | 66% | 22% | 36% | 66% |
| Social Networking | 82 | 58% | 6% | 20% | 26% |
| Business | 81 | 36% | 10% | 8% | 16% |
| News | 81 | 58% | 18% | 22% | 66% |
| Travel | 81 | 46% | 6% | 14% | 28% |
| Lifestyle | 80.5 | 50% | 6% | 14% | 22% |
| Utilities | 80.5 | 52% | 6% | 12% | 14% |
| Books | 80 | 78% | 4% | 12% | 46% |
| Food & Drink | 78 | 44% | 8% | 14% | 70% |
| Medical | 74 | 36% | 10% | 2% | 60% |
52% run In-App Events and 28% have a preview video, more than twice the rate of other apps. But their titles are short (median 16 characters), 42% repeat words between title and subtitle, and 34% show fewer than 6 screenshots.
Titles are longer (median 24 characters) and only 23% repeat words, but just 11.4% have a preview video and 22.5% run an In-App Event. 36.7% are English only.
If the most downloaded apps in each category still leave video, events, title space and localization on the table, most other apps do too. These are the changes we see pay off first:
Fill the title and subtitle with two different keyword themes, and remove repeated words.
Rework the first three screenshots around the main benefit, then use all 10 slots.
Add a short preview video for games and feature-heavy apps, showing the product in the first seconds.
Run In-App Events around launches, seasons and challenges so the app shows up in more places.
Localize for your next market with local keyword research, and use keyword-linked Custom Product Pages for distinct search intents.
Run your app through the same checker in about 20 seconds, or talk to a senior ASO specialist about a plan.
On 29 September 2026 we took the top 50 free apps from Apple’s public US top charts in 20 categories: Games, Health & Fitness, Education, Lifestyle, Productivity, Finance, Entertainment, Photo & Video, Social Networking, Travel, Music, Shopping, Food & Drink, Utilities, Business, Medical, Navigation, News, Sports and Books. That gave 1,000 unique apps. For each one we read Apple’s public app lookup and the public App Store page, then ran the checks used by our ASO Checker. All 1,000 listings were read in full.
Limits. Top-chart apps are larger and better resourced than the typical app, so the wider market likely scores lower. Public data cannot show conversion rates, keyword rankings, keyword fields or Custom Product Pages. Language counts come from the languages an app declares, which can differ from localized store metadata. The study describes what top listings do; it does not show that any feature causes higher rankings or installs.
The top 50 free apps in 20 categories of Apple’s US App Store top charts on 29 September 2026, 1,000 unique apps in total.
A 0 to 100 score from our ASO Checker. It weights title and subtitle use, screenshots, preview video, rating and rating volume, update recency, localization, In-App Events, iPad screenshots and release notes, using public listing data only.
The study shows what top listings do, not what causes rankings. Rankings also depend on downloads, ratings and relevance. Use the findings as a checklist, then test changes against your own App Store Connect data.
Both need production and planning time, and many teams treat the store listing as set-and-forget once an app is established. Games, which run live operations, use them far more often than other categories.
Yes. You may quote or chart the figures with a link to this page as the source.
You may quote or chart these figures with a link to this page. Admiral Media is a mobile growth agency that runs App Store Optimization for subscription apps and games.
