What does it take to break an iOS top 25 list? - study

Securing a high-profile spot on the iTunes App Store is a great way to boost awareness for a mobile game. It might not be easy to get such placement on the iOS storefront, but a new study from analyst group Distimo helps quantify that barrier to entry by revealing the minimum number of downloads required to get your game on an iTunes top 25 list. Looking at data from April 2012, Distimo found that a free game needs to reach at least 25,300 daily downloads to reach the Top 25 Games chart. To make it on the overall iTunes chart, meanwhile, a free game would need to hit 38,400 daily downloads. For paid apps, meanwhile, the Top 25 requirements are much lower. The Game category, for instance, only requires a minimum of 2,280 daily downloads, while the overall charts require 3,530 downloads. Within the Game category, Distimo noted that certain genres are much more competitive than others. The Arcade and Action genres are easily the most popular across both paid and free apps, and thus games in these categories need to see more frequent daily downloads if they hope to break that genre's Top 25 chart. For a more detailed look at Distimo's analysis of the iTunes Top 25 listings, visit the group's official blog.